Of Great Price

Faith and a Full House

2010-06-07T19:32:00.002-04:00

I just found out that my friend Jamie, whom I met when she was probably 8 years old or so, has a blog. Jamie is married to Alan, a pastor who used to be a student in Tom's high school math and science classes. They have 6 of the loveliest children I have ever seen. Watching Jamie and Alan grow in the faith and in love for one another was a lot of fun and gave joy to all who knew them. We were a little late for their wedding, but I got to give the beautiful bride a hug just before she walked down the aisle.

Jamie is a well-educated woman and home schools their six children. She has a wonderful sense of humor, and a love for her children that puts me to shame. I think you will find her blog refreshing and uplifting.

Faith and a Full House

Lily Among Thorns

2009-10-01T07:47:00.001-04:00

My cousin's daughter, a lovely young lady named Rachel, has started a blog. Check it out here: Lily Among Thorns.

Time is a precious commodity.

2009-07-25T22:27:00.004-04:00

It is time we came to an understanding. I have always said that if there is one thing I wish our family could do without, it's the internet. Not e-mail, but the whole rest of the world wide web. There was a time when we did without, and enjoyed ourselves. Can we get there again?

Today I sat on the couch and informed my daughter that the old run-down house she wants is up for sale. There I was with Sarah on my right, Elijah on my left, and Tom across from me on the chair. We began a conversation about how we could buy this house for Sarah (we can't but it's a nice dream) and it would be a nice dowry for her. (No, you do NOT hear wedding bells yet, don't even think it.) That led to a discussion about what dowries biblically are meant to be (protection for the bride, and something for her to fall back on in case her hubby died or turned out to be a wife-deserting scumbag) compared to what they became in American history (totally turned over to the husband to enhance his estate, leaving her with nothing if he turned out to be that worthless scumbag).

Tom got up, to go do whatever pastors do on Saturday nights (go to bed early), leaving me to supervise the bath/shower routine. Josiah took his place on the chair, then Lizzie snuggled up between me and Sarah, and Abby snuggled in on the other side, between me and Elijah. We continued to speculate on how we could get that house for Sarah, with Josiah adding a half-dreaming plan or two of his own. (Seriously, if I had the money I'd get it, if it were structurally sound enough to be worth fixing--old houses are so much more "alive" than the factory made, cookie cutter houses of today.)

The point of this post is not to discuss the topic of tonight's conversation, but to emphasize the fact that a conversation took place at all. Sarah did NOT have her laptop in her lap, I was NOT on my computer, and NObody had mp3 players plugged into their ears. I was snuggled up with some of my most favorite people in the whole world, just talking.

It was nice.

If, in a year or two, you come back here and still don't find anything new, it's because I'm doing something more important: spending time with the people I love the most.

P.S. In case you think I'm being extreme, here's a good video to watch: A Journey Home. Set aside 45 minutes of your time to watch this with your family. Seriously. I've been praying for a long time for something similar for our family. Tom hardly ever watches a video with us, but he found this one, watched it, recommended it to me, we watched it with some of our children, then I watched it yesterday with the rest of our children.

Holy Ground

2009-05-25T21:19:00.003-04:00

Then said the Lord to him, Put off thy shoes from thy feet: for the place where thou standest is holy ground. --Acts 7:33

Acts 7 is Stephen's narration of the history of Israel just before he was put to death by stoning. The chapter makes interesting reading, but I was looking for something I could apply to my life today. When I read any given chapter in the morning, I like to pick out one or two verses to carry with me through the day, verses that give me a sense of the whole passage, or that especially fit what the Lord has already been teaching me.

I read over the chapter again, and the "holy ground" verse stood out to me. I live life in bare feet as much as possible. I am the first to go barefoot in spring, and the last to give it up in the fall. The thought came to me this morning that everything I do as a full-time wife and mother is to be holy work. It is to be offered up as worship to my Lord as I try to do everything for His honour and glory.

As I went bare foot through my day, hanging clothes on the line, changing diapers, baking bread, wiping noses, reading storybooks, editing something for Tom, giving spelling tests, checking math, supervising chores, and all the rest of it, I kept this thought in my head: "This is holy ground. This is worship. This is for You, Lord Jesus." And anytime I found myself getting impatient or frustrated, I stopped myself by remembering that bad attitudes have no place on holy ground.

Pictures of life at our house

2009-05-02T21:32:00.004-04:00

Abby climbed a spruce tree in our yard to get this picture. The brown is our new roof, with new front porch.

A good view of the back of our property. All the trashy junk in the front of the picture has been cleaned up. :)

The whole gang.

Sam, before his haircut. He looks a LOT different now.

After the haircut. This is what he plays with when I'm on the computer. It's a multiple USB port, with coffee warmer.

Digging my garden, getting ready to plant the early crops.

New baby rabbits.

New kittens.

Some of the chickens. They are not as good layers as we've had before, but they're doing okay.

Sarah's little dog, Tomo, saying hi to Snickers, the big dog outside.

Coming back

2009-03-28T15:17:00.002-04:00

It's time to get back to blogging. I've been very negligent of it since being on facebook.

It's spring! Today I did some more trash clean-up behind the garage and worked in the garden some. The ground is still too wet, and in some places still frozen, to work the soil, but I'm trying to clean things up and get ready.

This is going to be a busy summer. We have got to find a better way to grow and store garden produce so that we can actually live off the vegetables instead of having them rot on us. :( We tried storing the pumpkins in the barn last fall, but before I could get them processed, they froze. And the tomatoes didn't ripen before frost, partly because of not having much sun, and partly because I planted them too close together.

We're getting the living room redone this year, and installing our new woodstove! The woodstove was a gift from some friends. They had gotten a couple of new ones, so when they heard we wanted to go with wood heat they offered us their old one. We offered to pay for it, but they wouldn't let us.

So another thing to do this year is get wood in. And fence in the back third of the property so that the chickens and ducks don't migrate to the neighbours'. And dig a trench to drain the area we hope to fence in. And get my raised beds ready to actually use. And do a major clutter cleaning inside the house.

And go on a trip! We are going to Maranatha again this July, and then to a family reunion of sorts. My brother, his new wife, his two sons, and their adopted Papua New Guinea son are coming to the States for a visit. I've never met Johanna, so this is going to be a special time for all of us.

I'm also going to get a preview of what life without Sarah will be like someday when she leaves home. She is going to be spending a couple of months with my parents, from mid-April till mid-July. This is going to be fun for her, and I'm glad for her sake, but we are going to miss her.

On the days when we are totally bored and there's not much else to do, we will fit in some school work. That probably won't happen much, but I'm thinking we're going to have to do some sort of year-round schooling just to get a year's worth done in a year.

The four youngest have been trying to recover from colds. I let them go outside today since it was so warm and sunny, but I think at least Sam will be staying home from church tomorrow.

And now it's time to start supper.

So Much More Giveaway results

2009-02-09T18:25:00.002-05:00

Not surprisingly, I had only four responses to this giveaway. All four respondents win. So: Tabitha, Crystal and Victoria, e-mail me your street address and I'll get your copies in the mail hopefully this week. (Christy, I have your address already. :) )

Use this e-mail address, and put "So Much More" in the subject line: svcfbs "at" yahoo "dot" ca, replacing the "at" and the "dot" with the standard symbols. :)

Hope you enjoy the reading! And stop by Grace and Truth Books (link on my sidebar) for more fantastic reading material.

By the way, I was not surprised at the response for two reasons: one, my blog is not well-known, and two, this is not a popular book. In fact, it is quite a controversial book. But I hope it makes you think and study the Word.

So Much More give away

2009-02-02T15:07:00.002-05:00

I have five copies of the book So Much More to give away. If you want a copy, leave a comment. At the end of this week, I'll pull five names out of a hat to see who wins.

For more info on the book, go here. Warning: This is NOT a book you can be neutral about! You will either love it or hate it. Or you might be one of those rare, rational beings who is able to glean all the good you can and leave the bad.

Be sober, be vigilant

2009-01-25T07:42:00.005-05:00

Years ago, in a church we once attended, was a couple who loved the Lord and His people dearly. He was a deacon in the church, a true servant. She was one of the most hospitable people I knew. Many were the hours of true Christian fellowship we spent with them. We lost touch with them after we moved, but I have always remembered them fondly.

Recently I was shocked and saddened to learn that, some time ago, this wife gave up 20 or so years of marriage and left her husband. I could not have imagined a more impossible thing. I have no idea what happened, but two verses came to mind.

One is found in Titus 2. The list of all that men and women, young and old, ought to be ends with this admonition: "...that the word of God be not blasphemed." When our homes are not operating according to the Scripture, we give the unbelieving world cause to blaspheme God's Holy word. They call us hypocrites, and rightly so.

The other verse is this: "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour" (1 Peter 5:8). I don't know what this woman's point of departure was, but there came a point when she ceased to be vigilant. Her adversary, who was already stalking her, seized this opportunity and devoured her. From what I hear, she is far from happy in her chosen lifestyle.

My prayer is that God will deal in mercy with this woman. But she will never be able to gain back what she threw away: her husband belongs to another woman now.

Oh, my fellow sisters in Christ! Let us be sober. Let us be vigilant. Let us not blaspheme His Word by failing to be what we should be in our hearts, in our homes, in our churches, in our world.

John's day off

2009-01-21T12:52:00.003-05:00

John (age 4): Mommy, what's a day off?

Me: It's when you take time to do something fun instead of all the work you would normally do on that day.

John: So when I knocked all my clothes off my bed and played, that was a day off, right?

A New Friend

2008-12-22T15:48:00.002-05:00

I am adding a new friend to my sidebar. Carrie Trunick is married to a man who used to be a little boy I occasionally babysat many years ago. The Trunicks are Very Important People in our lives. The senior Trunicks (Carrie's in-laws) were used of the Lord to put Tom and me together. They arranged meetings between the two of us, making it possible for us to get to know each other in a variety of settings. I honestly believe that if it hadn't been for their prodding, Tom would never have seriously pursued me.

Carrie and her husband Bill are caretakers of my all-time most favorite spot on all this earth: Maranatha Bible Conference in Worthington, PA. I attended as a camper there for the first time when I was 11 years old. I grew up there in a very real sense. My first summer job was in that kitchen. My first experience as a camp counselor was in one of the log cabins on the hill above the main camp grounds. It was at that camp that God saved me. There I also met my husband, and became engaged. The whole of the rest of my life would never have been the same were it not for that place and the many godly people I've met there over the years.

I finally got to meet Carrie last August when we went down for a conference. She's a sweetie with three adorable little boys. She's a beginning home schooler, with all the same struggles as the rest of us stay-at-home, home schooling moms--namely, how to juggle schooling, housework, quiet time with the Lord, and quality husband-time, while still staying connected with extended family and the rest of the outside world.

Well, I've got my own little boy to put to bed now. When you get some time, check out Carrie's notes.

Whole Grain Variety Bread

2008-12-03T11:59:00.004-05:00

I made my first loaf of bread when I was 12 years old. In the 30 years since then, I've put countless loaves of fresh bread on the table for my family. Usually it was white bread, sometimes whole wheat. Thirteen years ago, when we moved to Texas, I was introduced to fresh ground flour. I bartered with our landlord: They supplied the fresh flour for both our families, I baked it into bread for both our families.

I used to bake on Saturdays, baking enough bread for the whole week. We froze it to keep it fresh till we needed it. But freezing destroys some of the vitamins in whole wheat flour, so now I bake bread every other day or so.

I just put today's batch of bread in the oven. Just recently I changed my ever-evolving bread recipe--again. Last week we bought a used grain grinder from friends of ours. My wheat grinder works well, but only for small grains like wheat, rice and barley. I needed something for larger grains like corn and dried beans. (No, beans aren't a grain, but they do go well in bread.)

I still had some dried sweet corn from two summers ago, so when Josiah brought home the new grinder, we tried running that through. It made good cornmeal, but not as fine as I wanted for bread flour. So we ran the grindings through my wheat grinder. It turned out well.

There is a pleasant sense of satisfaction that comes from baking bread using corn you plant, hoe, water, pick, husk, dry, shell and grind into flour yourself. Sort of like the Little Red Hen. Next we're going to try field corn Elijah and Ben gleaned from a nearby corn field. Like Ruth and Naomi.

So here's my current recipe, which is subject to change. If you don't have a grain grinder or a friend with a grain grinder, just use all wheat flour.

Whole Grain Variety Bread
Makes 4 loaves

5 cups very hot tap water
1 cup rolled oats
4 cups whole wheat flour

3 cups variety flour made from any other combination of grains and/or dried beans

2 tablespoons yeast

1 tablespoon salt

1/2 cup oil

1/2 cup honey

3-4 cups or so unbleached flour

Pour hot water over rolled oats. Set aside. Mix together wheat flour, variety flour, yeast and salt. Add oil, honey, and oatmeal mixture. Stir very well.

Add unbleached flour, 1 or 2 cups at a time, until the dough is stiff enough to knead. Scrape out the dough onto the table. I use a hard plastic scraper to get as much as I can out of the bowl and off the mixing spoon. Then I use flour to rub off the rest. This eliminates a gooey mess in the sink.

Knead in more unbleached flour until the dough is no longer sticky, but still just a little bit tacky. Too much flour makes a drier, more crumbly loaf; not enough makes the dough too sticky to handle well.

Pour about a couple tablespoons of oil in the bottom of the mixing bowl. Put the ball of dough in and turn it around so that all of the dough is coated with oil. Cover loosely with a lid or damp dish towel. Let it rise until it's at least doubled. I usually get busy with other things and forget about it, only to turn around and see the dough lifting the lid and bulging out.

Dump the dough out on the table and punch it flat. If you have little children in your house, let them wash their hands and punch. They love it. They can also help you grease four bread pans with butter. (Oil doesn't coat the pans well enough.) Divide the dough into four pieces and roll them into loaf shapes. When you do this, make sure you're getting rid of any air pockets. Put into pans and put into the cold oven. The oven rack should be one notch lower than middle.

Turn the oven on to 350-375 (depends on how hot your oven is--the temp. should be 375, but my oven heats hotter than the setting, so I set it for 350). Set the timer for 40 minutes. The bread should be done when the timer goes off. You want a loaf that is nicely browned all over.

Turn the bread out onto a wire rack to cool. You can slice thinner slices after it's cool, or you can slice it thicker and enjoy wonderful fresh hot bread right away.

The cry of "Fresh bread!" will bring your children, your neighbours' children and the friends who just pulled in to see the work being done on your house flocking around. Don't be surprised if one or two loaves disappear before your very eyes. Take it as a compliment and start the whole process again the next day.

Paul Washer on Courtship and Dating

2008-12-02T10:48:00.007-05:00

I hope every parent and every single person aged 12 and up who reads this blog will listen to these messages. Here is a way to be biblically and radically different from your culture. This is cutting, convicting, wonderful, sobering, practical stuff. I can't stress enough the importance of the message Paul Washer puts forth in these three sermons.

There is a problem with two of the messages in that for some reason you don't get the whole thing, but there is enough of it there that they're still worth listening to.

Dating
Courtship, Part 1
Courtship, Part 2

A Radically Different Family

2008-12-01T06:25:00.003-05:00

Yesterday I was home with coughing, sniffling, sneezing--thankfully, no wheezing!--children. For our Sunday service at home, I looked up some Paul Washer sermons. You can find a bunch of them here. These are very good, and I recommend them to everyone.

In the sermon we listened to yesterday morning, Bro. Washer said that we cannot influence our culture by being like the culture in dress, music, speech, etc., but by being radically different. How do you be radically different?

This morning I decided to start reading through Luke. The very first family mentioned was the ideal Christian family. Read Luke chapter one. You will find three verses that say that so-and-so was "filled with the Holy Ghost." Their names are Zacharias, Elisabeth and John. And they were radically different from even their seemingly righteous Jewish culture in at least three instances. And these three instances were "little" things.

1. Zacharias and Elisabeth insisted on naming their son John, when there were no other Johns in the family. This just wasn't done in those days. But God said to name him John, so they named him John.

2. John wore clothes made out of camel's hair, held in place with a belt made of leather. Quite different from the fine priestly robes he could have worn as part of the family of Aaron. But John came in the spirit and power of Elijah, and even dressed like him (see 2 Kings 1:8).

3. John ate locusts and wild honey. He could have feasted on the best that the land had to offer of the part of the sacrificial foods that were set aside for the priests and their families.

Food, clothes and baby names. Not what the average Christian today generally prays about, submitting their choices to the Lord for approval. Actually they didn't even do that. God didn't look over their choices and say, "Oh, that's a good choice; yeah, do that." No. They didn't offer their choices to Him. They just listened to what He said, and obeyed. In the little things. In everything.

They were not the average family. They were radically different.

They were Spirit-filled.

How We Spent Thanksgiving Day

2008-11-28T10:43:00.002-05:00

We normally celebrate two Thanksgivings every year: Canada's, in October, at a provincial park with friends and church family; and the US's, in New York, with friends we knew when we lived there. US Thanksgiving was yesterday, and here's how it went...

We left home at about 9:15. The van stalled out a couple miles from home. Josiah was able to start it again right away, so we kept going. It did not stall out again while we were still in Canada.

We dropped off Nate's passport (he went with our friends the Underwoods, so he got to enjoy the day in New York) and stopped at Walmart to pick up a few things and take little children to the bathroom.

We got TO the border at about 10:05. We got THROUGH the border at 10:50. No problem with us, we just got in a slow lane.

We traveled about 20 minutes, with the van stalling out about 4-5 times. As it got progressively harder to start each time, we called our friends to tell them we weren't coming, and were going to try to get the van back home.

Heading back, the van stalled twice before we got to the border. Josiah noticed that it would go into a stall when he pressed the brake, so he drove slow enough through Massena that he got all the green lights and didn't have to stop. Once he got a red light, and he was prepared to make a right-hand turn rather than stop, but the light changed just as we got to it.

Then, as we turned onto the road leading up to the border, the van stalled out. We were in a turning lane, blocking traffic, so the boys had to get out and push the van uphill and off the road. This time we could not start it again. After waiting about ten minutes, it still wouldn't start.

Tom decided to take Sarah, John, Abby, and Lizzie home in the car, pick up his tools, and come back. We sent one of the nut pies home with them, and kept one to eat ourselves. So Tom dropped those four off at home and got his tools. But then when he tried to leave home, the car wouldn't start! So he had to work on that. He got it running and came back to see if we could start the van.

Meanwhile, I was not wearing snow boots, and with no heat in the van, we were all quite cold. I kept getting out and stomping around to keep the blood moving in my feet. By this time it was close to 2:30 I think, and we had been waiting there for about an hour and a half. I was getting more concerned about Timothy. His cough was worsening, and I had forgotten his puffer. I could hear him wheeze more, and wished I'd sent him home with Sarah instead of Abby.

Tom came back, and the van started! I drove, in case we stalled at customs and Josiah would be needed to push. We got to the top of the first bridge crossing the St. Lawrence. Just as we started down the other side, the van stalled. I was able to coast into customs. We stopped at the window, showed our passports and permanent resident cards and answered all the normal questions. I told the guard we were stalled and the boys would have to get out to push. He asked if I needed help. I told him my hubby was in the car behind me, and we'd be okay. So the boys pushed us through customs into the parking lot, and the guard waved Tom through without asking for ID or any of the normal questions.

This time there was no starting the van back up. I took everybody but Tom and Josiah home in the car. At about 3:15 we got home. Almost as soon as we got home, Tom called and asked me to come pick them up, that they were going to have to get the van towed to the shop. Thankfully, the car has not been acting up anymore. But we had just gotten the van back on Monday, after almost three weeks of being in the shop.

We have the money for another van, but we had hoped to replace the CAR not the VAN. The car is not a big enough second vehicle for us.

So that was our day. My feet finally thawed out, and the Underwoods were sweet and brought turkey leftovers to us last night.

Hope the rest of you had a good day!

The Christian Family

2008-11-10T06:58:00.002-05:00

From the Pastor's Desk...

"The Christian family was the bulwark of godliness in the days of the Puritans; but in these evil times hundreds of families of so-called Christians have no family worship, no restraint upon growing sons, and no wholesome instruction or discipline. See how the families of many professors are as dressy, as godless as the children of the non-religious! How can we hope to see the Kingdom of our Lord advance when His own disciples do not teach His gospel to their own sons and daughters?" --C. H. Spurgeon

"Every Christian family ought to be a little church, consecrated to Christ and wholly influenced and governed by His Laws." --Jonathan Edwards

"It is difficult to see how Christianity can have a positive effect on society if it cannot transform its own homes." --John MacArthur

Cloth Diapering 101

2008-10-30T09:58:00.003-04:00

I have been asked to explain my system for using cloth diapers. Anyone else is invited to ask questions, share tips, tell experiences, etc., in the comment section. When giving advice, keep in mind that this is written to a young mom expecting her first baby, who never even heard of cloth diapering until very recently. (In this age of disposables, I don't think she is unique.) What seems basic to you may be totally new to her -- and, perhaps, to other readers of this blog.

Edited to add: Here is a great link with a lot more info on cloth diapering, with lots of other links to help you find what you need and how to save money by making some things yourself. http://allaboutclothdiapers.com

I buy pre-folded cloth diapers at Wal-mart in the US. As far as I know, none of the Wal-marts in this section of Ontario sell cloth diapers. (They do sell diaper pins and plastic pants; go figure.) There are a number of things that are cheaper/more available in Wal-marts in the US, so we tend to shop there whenever we are in the States.

If I had the money, I would order diapers over the internet. Several companies offer different sizes of prefolds, to better fit newborns up to toddlers. And if I had a lot more money, I'd buy woolen "soakers" to use instead of plastic pants. If I had more time, and a good source for quality wool spun "in the grease" (for softness and waterproofing), I'd knit my own. Some people use diapers/diaper covers with velcro closures, but I don't like them. I can never get them fastened tight enough, and the hook side of the velcro gets clogged with lint too fast.

I like to start with 5-6 dozen diapers. I used to keep as many as I needed to go through a whole week without washing diapers. But now I have a smaller diaper pail, so I wash them when the pail is full. When I've had two children in diapers, this could be every other day or so. With just Sam, it's more like every 3-4 days.

The packaging for the diapers usually has diagrams that illustrate how to put the diaper on the baby. Borrow a doll to practice on. (Little girls always used to do this when playing "house," but modern baby dolls come with disposables.) A newborn can wear one diaper, folded over in front to fit. As Baby grows, you will sooner or later need to double the diaper (putting two on at a time). When Baby starts sleeping through the night, you may need to triple the diaper. I usually keep the inner diaper(s) folded in, opening out only the outer diaper so I'm not pinning through so many layers.

When pinning, keep the fingers of your other hand under the diaper, next to the baby's skin. That way, if anyone gets pricked, it'll be you, not the baby.

When putting the plastic pants (or whatever diaper cover you use) on, make sure the diaper is completely tucked in, all the way around, at the waist and at the legs. The tiniest bit of cloth diaper (or even the tag in the back of the plastic pants) will wick wetness out and get Baby's clothes wet.

When changing Baby, I like to use Huggies brand of wipes. However, I rarely want to spend the money for them. Instead, I use washcloths. I like baby washcloths for this, since they're softer, but when I don't have them, I use a cheap package of regular washcloths. I wet the washcloth with warm water and add a squirt of baby bath. I bought one bottle of (expensive) baby bath with a pump-squirt thingy on the top, and refill it with cheaper baby bath in the regular bottles. After using the washcloths, they get thrown in the diaper pail along with the diapers.

With babies that are only (or mostly) breast-fed, I put the messy diapers in the diaper pail without rinsing first. When they are eating more and more solids, their messes are nastier, and need to be rinsed out in the toilet first. I think it's more efficient to do this by hand than to use one of those diaper ducky things. I like to use rubber gloves for this (and clean them by washing my hands with the gloves still on), but my children like to play with rubber gloves (and lose them). So I buy a box of disposable vinyl gloves and throw them away after using.

Unless the plastic pants are messy (from bowel movements) or overly wet and smelly from overnight use, I reuse them for the next diaper. They come cleaner in the laundry if you turn them inside out before putting them in the diaper pail.

There are official diaper pails available. Tom got me something different, though, that I like better. It's a flip-top trash can that you open the lid by stepping on the pedal thingy at the bottom. It has a bucket liner that you lift out when you need to empty it. It's easier to use because when you have the baby in one arm and the wet diaper in the other hand, you can use your foot to open it, and it shuts by itself.

When laundering diapers, I dump them in the washer, add detergent and turn the washer on. Lacking a washer (a memorable event once when I had two in diapers), I dump them into the tub, add water and detergent, and wash by hand. If I can hang them on the line outside, I use cold water. Otherwise I use hot. Hanging them on the line on a bright sunny day bleaches them. Leaving them out in the rain, or overnight in the dew softens them. If you do use a dryer, remember this: plastic pants last longer if you do NOT put them in the dryer. Hang them up instead. Also, bleach weakens the fibers in the diapers.

Diaper rash: I use zinc oxide cream now. When I lived in the US, I could get a little bottle of vitamin E oil that worked wonders. Here, the vitamin E oil is thick, sticky, hard to use, and -- no surprise -- expensive.

That is all I can think of right now. That seems like a lot of information, but once you get going with it, it becomes second nature. And you save tons of money, even if you have to pay for your water. (We have a well, and sun and wind are free.)

Quick Update

2008-09-29T17:12:00.003-04:00

Since taking the internet off my computer in August, I have been amazed at how much work I've gotten done around here. There is still a lot to do to get the garden ready for its winter sleep-over. Also, we are tentatively scheduled to start on our new roof and front porch this week. Once that's done, we'll be able to start remodeling inside.

I tried to start home schooling after Labour Day, but there's just so much to do around here we haven't had time. We're hoping to start by the end of October. Right now we're experiencing real-life education, which is, in many ways, more important than academics.

I am hoping that by the beginning of November I can start posting on this blog at least once a month. I want to start by putting on a lot of pictures...

stuff we do with free pallet wood
Sam, growing by leaps and bounds (he's six months old already!)
me, smaller by a significant number of pounds
the goat barn
all Sarah's rabbits (maybe two dozen or so?)
Sarah's ducks (sorry, but the pig went to the butcher today)
the new roof and porch
the new bike shed/lean-to we added to the side of the garage

...and maybe more stuff.

Got to go do laundry, rake leaves and finish making supper. We're having chicken leg quarters tonight.

Love to all my friends and enemies! (You know who you are :) ) Anonymous, if you still read this, know that I pray for you, but I couldn't let you communicate with me anymore. Hope you're doing okay.

Cathy for all the gang.

No more encumbering

2008-07-12T09:11:00.004-04:00

Below this post is the last of the "Servant's heart" series. Now the time has come for me to say goodbye to the internet for an extended period of time. I will continue to communicate with friends and family via e-mail. But there will be no more blogging, no more internet "research", no more Facebook (why, oh why, did I ever sign up for that anyway?), no more home-school or large-family forums, no more frantic searches for the best, most miraculous (the "Christian" word for magical) weight loss secret.

I am not even going to print out my friend Rand's Friday Night Notes for our church bulletin board. I'm going to pass that job on to my son Josiah.

Pray for us this summer. Our church Bible conference runs July 30 - August 3. Our very dear friend Pastor David Dickerson is coming all the way from Georgia to preach for us. We are so looking forward to his coming, and pray that the Lord will bless it and begin to send us the revival we have been longing for (but not longing for nearly enough).

August 11-15 we will be attending the Bible conference at Maranatha in Pennsylvania. Our oldest son Nate was able to get time off from work to go with us. Please pray that God will awaken him.

The Sunday after the Maranatha conference we hope to be in Mount Vision, New York, visiting our friend Chris Ellis' church. I'm looking forward to seeing them again, and visiting with his wife, and his daughter Esther. Mount Vision is just about half-way between our house and Pennsylvania, so we've been sometimes stopping there to break our trip in half.

I am concerned about us living in a neighbourhood setting. On the one hand, I see such an opportunity to share the gospel with our unsaved neighbours. But on the other hand, I see my children more and more negatively influenced by those lost children. Pray for us about this. I don't want to try so hard to win my neighbours for Christ that I lose my children to the world. But I don't want to so close my family in that we neglect our neighbours, either. I don't know where the balance is, but I do know that my first and primary responsibility is to my home and family.

Part of what's hard about living in a neighbourhood is when all the neighbour children congregate in my yard. This is fine sometimes, but often they're all here way too much. If none of the children are outside, they'll come to the door and ask if they can play. I like that. But if the children are already outside, they won't ask my permission. They'll just come into the yard and start playing. I'd like to find a way to stop this so that my children are not with the world's children hours upon hours every day throughout the summer. I don't think it's fair to make my children stay inside until I am able to be out there with them. I'd like for them to be able to go out without having the neighbours in my yard, too. If any of you have any suggestions for how to deal with this, let me know.

As I get the money, I am ordering schoolbooks for this fall (the only other internet use I will justify for myself right now; a money order costs five dollars!!!). I am looking forward to starting up school again. I am thinking of doing home school more or less year round with breaks for gardening, conferences and family days. That way I don't have to try to cram all the lessons into the short months between Canadian Thanksgiving in October and Victoria Day in May like I have been. (That's between the end of harvest and the beginning of spring planting.) And it will help some with keeping my children occupied without the neighbourhood joining in.

That's it for now. Have a great rest-of-the-summer.

Servant's Heart, Part 3

2008-07-06T16:40:00.002-04:00

Here is Part One.

Here is Part Two.

And now for a closer look at one of the controversial figures in the New Testament: Martha. Of all the women in the Bible, I believe I identify most with Martha. She is the in-charge type, who likes to control the situation, and who gets pretty frustrated when things don't go her way. She tends to take her frustrations out on people, and she tries to get other people to take sides--her side--in every argument. When she is hosting an event, she likes to have everything just right. The food, the house, the arrangement of the furniture, the clothes her family members wear, the way everyone has their hair combed--all has to be just right.

Martha has a very hard time "going with the flow" when something disturbs her idea of perfection. She likes to orchestrate everything and everybody, and she gets all out of sorts when people and things don't perform up to her standards.

I have just described Catherine Margaret Smith Newton. Somebody out there in blog world has just said to themselves, "So that's why she's always defending Martha! She's really just defending herself!" And that's how it was when I first started to study Martha 18 months ago, when a dear friend preached about her. I did not like the picture he was painting of me, so I decided to do some word studies connected to both accounts of Martha and her beloved sister Mary.

Almost everybody I know who as done any kind of devotional or sermon or article on Martha and Mary focuses on one against the other. Martha this BUT Mary that. Mary worships BUT Martha serves. Mary progresses in her worship BUT Martha continues serving. And this is how I usually saw myself. Wanting to worship BUT being stuck in the nursery. Wanting to spend hours in prayer and Bible study BUT having to work with my children. Wanting to sit and feed on the Word in the adult Sunday school class BUT having to teach a class myself. What I most resented was that I saw no way possible for me to "choose the better part" because there was no choice for me. I HAD to serve.

When I took a good hard look at myself 18 months ago, I saw the truth about myself in a way that I never wanted to admit before. The truth is this: given the choice, given the wide-open door of opportunity to "choose the better part" without distraction, guess what? I would still find some way to be "encumbered about much serving."

So here I was, embarking on a journey, setting out to prove to the world once and for all that it is okay to be a Martha. That we all have different personality types, and God can use us all within our different personality types. Martha can serve while Mary worships, and God will bless us both. And I fully expected to have people, even the best commentators, totally disagree with me. And I was loading my guns in preparation for fighting back.

So I started tooling around with my wonderful E-sword, and to my surprise, most of the commentators were sympathetic toward Martha! Well, that sort of took some steam out of me. And in wondering how to interpret the two Martha-serving passages, I proceeded with my word study.

Luke 10:38 Now it came to pass, as they [the Lord and His disciples] went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house.

This is an interesting verse. Martha, Mary and their brother Lazarus lived together in one house. Yet it was not Lazarus' house, it was Martha's. Normally single women lived with their father, brother, uncle or other male relative. But here's a case where the home is owned by the woman. Now, I want to be careful not to read too much into this, but based on the following verses I think it's safe to say that Martha was an "in charge" type of person. She was the boss of that house. There is no way for us to know which sibling was the oldest, but I can imagine it might have been Martha. She sounds like she was used to running the show. Even her name means mistress!

Verses 39 and 40: And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet, and heard his word. But Martha was encumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me.

And here the contrast is drawn: Mary sitting in peace at the Lord's feet, Martha bustling about, becoming more and more agitated to the point of actually giving orders to the Lord Himself!

What is Martha actually doing here, that she thinks is so important? The phrase is "encumbered about much serving." The first three words emphasize each other in relation to the amount of serving this woman was doing.

Encumbered: To be over-occupied, too busy, about a thing; to be mentally distracted.

About: In excess, with completeness, through and through.

Much: Many. Large. (As in, "the hostess with the mostest.")

The picture in my mind is this: Days, maybe even weeks, of preparation. The best food in town purchased for this one meal. Perhaps servants are sent to nearby Jerusalem for items Bethany doesn't have. The house cleaned from top to bottom and beautifully decorated. The cushions arranged for maximum comfort. The dishes of food carefully prepared and exquisitely garnished. Each course exactly timed so that nothing is too hot or too cold when set before the guests. And she certainly would not have neglected the common welcome of the day as one Simon did. She would have had plenty of fresh, warm water, the best soaps and the fluffiest towels for washing her guests' feet.

In other words, Martha went WAY over the top with this one meal. And for what purpose? Why all this effort? Something I read once suggested that Martha was showing off. I don't think so. I think she saw the Lord as Someone very important, and she wanted Him to have the best she could offer. But her best was too much. It encumbered her, distracting her and drawing her away from simply sitting at the Lord's feet and fellowshipping with Him. He didn't want all that fuss and bother. He wanted her. He would have been perfectly satisfied with a simple meal such as they normally would have eaten, in order for her to have time with Him.

Verses 41-42 And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: but one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.

Careful: Anxious, troubled.

Troubled: Disturbed, troubled in mind, disquieted.

The Lord used two synonyms to describe Martha's mental state. He wanted to make sure she got the point, like when we caution a child by saying, "That water is boiling hot." It's not enough to just say boiling or hot; we have to say boiling hot. So the Lord says careful and troubled.

Now let's fast-forward a year.

John 12:1-3 Then Jesus six days before the passover came to Bethany, where Lazarus was which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead. There they made him a supper; and Martha served: but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him. Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment.

On the surface, it appears as though Martha has not learned anything. Lazarus is sitting with the Lord, Mary is worshiping Him in a way that suggests she understands perfectly that He is about to be killed, but Martha is serving again. I'm going to suggest that she did learn something, something essential.

Martha was probably a wealthy woman. Matthew Henry suggests that she was possibly a widow, which would explain why this is her house, not her brother's. Perhaps she came from a poor family and married a wealthy man. This might explain why Mary and Lazarus lived with her: maybe their father had no property for them to inherit. The point is, Martha most likely had many servants ready to do her bidding. In Luke's account, Martha was overseeing a huge feast. There was way too much for one, or even two, women to do. Servants would have been bustling back and forth with wash basins, cushions, appetizers, etc. Martha would also have been bustling about making sure everything was going just right, driven to distraction by the mental strain of it all.

In John's account a year later, there is a startling difference.

They made Him a supper. The main meal of the day, one that would take a little extra effort than for breakfast or lunch, just as many of us do for our own families every day. In other words, nothing more or less special than normal, everyday fare.

And Martha served. Martha. Not her servants. Martha herself brought the Lord His food and set it before Him. She served in His presence, and without the mental distraction of the previous feast. She had learned to use the gift of hospitality God had blessed her with to serve with simplicity and in quietness of heart out of love for her Lord. I quote Matthew Henry:

Christ had formerly reproved Martha for being troubled with much serving. But she did not therefore leave off serving, as some, who, when they are reproved for one extreme, peevishly run into another; no, still she served; not as then at a distance, but within hearing of Christ's gracious words, reckoning those happy who, as the queen of Sheba said concerning Solomon's servants, stood continually before him, to hear his wisdom; better be a waiter at Christ's table than a guest at the table of a prince.

Cor-Che-Me-Good: A Recipe

2008-07-02T17:46:00.004-04:00

This was too good to keep. Servant's heart, part 3, coming tomorrow.

Take one pound (or so, I didn't actually weigh it) of Monterey Jack cheese that really needs used up today. Think about that for a minute to determine the best way to incorporate that into a meal. Remember that when the groceries came today, your husband left the hamburger out, at your request. Think a little more about how the cheese and the meat will go best into some sort of casserole that your family will love, if only because they're tired of the same-old-predictable-same-old that you've been serving. While you are thinking about all this, start a pan of clean dishwater so you can clean as you go.

Ask your 9 year-old-daughter to pull six green onions from the garden. While she's doing that, pour some (maybe about 2 tablespoons) olive oil into a small frying pan. Turn burner on low to heat the oil while you cut most of the stems off the onions (leave about six inches). Realize that you could have saved olive oil and frying pans by cooking the onion with the hamburger. Say "oh well" to yourself, and start browning the hamburger in the large frying pan.

Make sure that you are using the side of the cutting board marked "onions". Clean and slice the parts of the onions that you keep, putting the rest into the bucket for the pig. Stir the hamburger. After you've sliced four onions, look at the pile of slices. Realize that the green onions are getting bigger bulbs now, so you really didn't need six. Put the two remaining onions into a dish for your husband, who loves garden-fresh onions. Put the slices in the frying pan with the hot oil. When it all spatters and spits at you, realize that you have the burner too high and turn it down. Stir. Stir the hamburger.

Pull three cloves off a garlic bulb. Cut the the little bits off at the root ends and remove the papery covers. Stir the onions. Chop up the hamburger to make sure it's all in bits, with no big lumps. Look on the nice magnetic knife holder your friends gave you, for the chopping knife. Notice that it's not there. Glance into the dish drainer. When you don't find it there, say "oh well" to yourself and get a different knife. Chop each garlic clove into bits, pausing after each to stir the onions. After each clove has been chopped, gather all the bits into a pile and chop again. Scrape the whole pile into the frying pan with the onions and stir. Stir the hamburger.

Stir the onions and garlic again. Remember the book you read recently that said garlic does not need to cook very long, or it will start to not taste so good. Turn the burner off and set the frying pan to the back of the stove. Check to see that all the pink is out of the hamburger. Drain fat and juices into glass measuring cup. Not because you want to measure it, but because it was handy. Turn off hamburger burner and set that frying pan on the stove.

Wash all utensils, etc., that you've used so far. Wipe down all counter tops. Call in your 9 year-old-daughter and your 5 year-old-daughter. While they are coming in and washing their hands, melt 1/4 cup butter in stock pot. Measure 1/4 cup flour, and set it aside. Measure 2 cups of milk, and set it aside. When the butter is melted, use the wire whippy to stir in the flour. Slowly add milk, stirring all the time. Occasionally set the milk down and give the mixture a good, thorough stirring, to make sure no lumps are happening.

By the time the milk is all poured and stirred in, the girls should have their hands washed. Have them start making a salad. While they are working, monitor their conversation to make sure it is characterized by peace, love and joy. Correct any speech that does not qualify. Note that this time, most of it does qualify. Smile about that.

Meanwhile, unwrap the cheese and slice it into the milk mixture, stirring till melted and smooth after every 5-6 slices. Be thankful for the cheese slicer: it works much nicer than a knife for this kind of cheese. Try not to remember that you were irritated with your husband for "wasting" money on it, when a knife would work just as well. While you are slicing the cheese, your daughters will crowd around and say, "Mmmm. Looks good. What is it?" Instead of doing the "Food" - "What kind of food?" - "Yummy food" bit that you usually do, confess the truth: you don't have a name for it because you're making it up as you go along. Announce that there will be a contest at dinner to see who can come up with a name for it. Remind your daughters that they are supposed to be making a salad.

After the cheese sauce is done, turn that burner off. Stir in the hamburger, then the onions and garlic. Get an inspiration, and stir in two cups of frozen corn. Wash all utensils, etc., that are dirty, and wipe all counter tops. Notice that the dish drainer is getting full. Draft 9 year-old-daughter to dry and put away. Show 5 year-old-daughter how to cut the "trees" of broccoli off the "trunk" to add to the salad. Be thankful that she has learned to use the sharp knife safely and is being such a big help. Tell her that she is being a big help.

Grease two 13X9 glass pans with butter. Portion the hamburger stuff evenly between the two and smooth it all out. Do the washing up routine again. Get the cookbook out and open it up to the drop biscuits recipe. See what temperature to set the oven for, and do that. Look for the big white mixing bowl. Realize that the girls are using it for the salad. Look for the other big white mixing bowl, being thankful that you have two. When you don't find it, ask the girls if they know where it is. 9 year-old-daughter will tell you that it's in the refrigerator. Ask what's in it. When she says, "Salad. Lots of salad," say, "oh, boy." Look at that salad. Notice that there are white wisps of cottony-looking mold growing on it. Wonder to yourself, "When was the last time we had salad?" Don't bother answering the question because it doesn't matter. You were gone all day yesterday, and before that you don't remember because everybody's been sick--again. Decide not to think about that.

Send the moldy salad out with 9 year-old-daughter to give to the pig. Be thankful that you have a pig, the pig you hadn't wanted because your neighbours went ahead and got it for you without asking, and you had to get your family scrambling to build it a pen for it right in the middle of the Saturday night bath routine, and it got loose early the next morning (which was a Sunday), and set the dogs to barking at 4:30 AM, which woke up your visiting parents, but you didn't know why the dogs were barking until several hours later, and everybody had to go out and chase the pig back into the pen when they should have been eating Sunday breakfast and getting ready for church, and somebody had to wake up those neighbours because their pig was loose too, and....... Decide not to think about that anymore, either.

When the bowl comes back, wash it, and mix up a double batch of drop biscuits. Spoon the dough onto the top of the hamburger mixture, portioning it so there are exactly 12 relatively evenly spaced blobs of dough on each panful. When there is one blob left over, break it up into bits and add them to the other blobs. Open the oven to put the pans in. Notice that you forgot to move the oven rack back to the middle after baking bread earlier. Move it now. Put pans in the oven and set the timer.

Now 9 year-old-daughter will tell you that the baby is crying. Call 16 year-old-daughter in to do the rest of the washing up. Just as she gets there, notice that the baby has stopped crying. Decide not to pick him up just now, but help the younger girls with the table setting, instead. As soon as everything is ready, call everyone to dinner.

As all the children gather around, listen to them exclaim about how good it smells, and what is it, and how good it looks, and can I have two helpings please, etc. Announce about the naming contest. Serve everybody their portions.

During dinner, 9 year-old-daughter will announce the name of this new recipe. Remind her that there will be a vote. She will ignore you, and explain how the recipe got its name.

Cor for corn
Che for cheese
Me for meat
Good because it's really good

Cor-Che-Me-Good.

Only at our house.

Servant's heart, part 2

2008-06-29T17:20:00.002-04:00

I would encourage you to read Romans 12 in connection with this post. I was going to quote the first 13 verses, but felt it was too long for this blog post. But please read it to get the whole context of what I am quoting. Also, when I try to give the sense of what different words and passages mean, I am in NO WAY trying to offer a different "translation" of the Scriptures. Most of this information comes from Strongs and Thayer via a handy little tool called E-Sword. I love it. Bible study has been taken to a whole new level since Tom installed this on my computer.

Rom 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

The Greek word translated service means worship. We are to offer our whole selves up as a sacrifice in worship to the Lord.

Rom 12:4-6 For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office: so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us...

We each have a different gift of service (worship) to offer to the Lord. The following verses describe some of those gifts, including this one:

Rom 12:7 ...or ministry, let us wait on our ministering...

The Greek word translated ministry/ministering (same word) is also translated ministration in Acts 6:1 (the account of why deacons were chosen), minister in Hebrews 1:14 (about angels ministering to the saints), relief in Acts 11:29 (aide sent to help the suffering saints in Judea) and serving in Luke 10:40 (the famous "Mary and Martha" passage)

It is a word used to describe the work of meeting both the physical and spiritual needs of others, and stems from the noun form which means servant.

Rom 12:9 Let love be without dissimulation....

Literally, let your benevolence be without hypocrisy. The word for love is agape, the ultimate giving kind of love.

Rom 12:10 Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honor preferring one another...

Literally, cherish one another as you would members of your own families with brotherly kindness; showing that you highly value one another.

Rom 12:13 Distributing1 to the necessity of saints; given to hospitality.

This verse is self-explanatory, but I found the word given interesting. The Greek means to chase after, or pursue, like someone running toward a goal. The goal in this case is loving and entertaining strangers.

So here is a whole passage dedicated to teaching us that we are not alike in the way we worship and serve Christ. We all have different gifts enabling us to worship and serve Christ in different ways. And the act of meeting the physical needs of others, both Christians and strangers (and Christ Himself while He was on this earth) is just as much a legitimate act of worship as any other.

So what was the difference between Mary and Martha in Luke 10:38-42? Not so much in what they did, but in their attitudes. Both were engaging in legitimate acts. But Martha did not have a legitimate attitude.

A severe thunderstorm is rolling in, so I am going to have to finish this later. I promise to finish this thought before I take my summer blog break. :)

Family picture

2008-06-28T15:25:00.002-04:00

Forgive our facial expressions. We are squinting into the sun.

I've not been able to finish the post I promised for this week. Will try for tomorrow afternoon.

Thanks for your prayers

2008-06-22T16:22:00.003-04:00

I want to thank everyone who has been praying for me. Thanks especially to my friend and sister in Christ, Lucie, for praying for my back. Please don't stop! My back has been doing great. My mental distress continues somewhat, but I think that will ease off in the months to come. Tom and I have talked about how busy I have been lately. We are in the process of changing some things around here so that I am not away from home so much, that we aren't running to town so much, and that the children take on more responsibility.

I am going to finish what I started about the servant's heart (Mary and Martha) later this week. After that I am going to take my cue from my daughter and take a blogging break for the summer. Meanwhile, we have our own Bible conference coming up July 30-August 3. Tom and I also hope to take the whole family (Nate, too!) to Maranatha Bible Conference (in Pennsylvania) in August (please pray that God will work out the details for this).

We are also building a small barn, Sarah is starting a babysitting job AND a meat rabbit business AND getting goats in the fall, I'm getting a Jersey cow, and there's all the gardening to do. We need to clean out our cellar and build a cold room down there, to use as a root cellar. We have a whole bunch of junk to haul away to the dump, and scrap metal to sell to the scrap yard. Our neighbour gave Elijah a trailer that Tom wants to fix up and get tags for, so that we can use it for hauling stuff. Stuff like several loads of hay, if the rain will stop long enough for the farmers to cut it!

AND, we're getting a new roof put on! We are getting a grant for this, so we had to submit two bids for the job. The inspector who approved our grant decides who gets the job. Pray that our friends Jon U. and Michel C. get the job. They are just getting started in their new construction contracting business, and we want to help them out. Plus we know them, and know that they will do a great job.

In a foggy place

2008-06-14T17:03:00.002-04:00

My mind has been in a fog for about a couple of months. I have been forgetting things a lot, and am not able to think clearly. I will ask a child to do something, and right away forget that I asked that, and ask the same child to do something else. I will start to say something, and suddenly I can't think what it was I wanted to say. I told Sarah she could go home with a friend after church one Sunday night, then later I wondered where she was. I could not recall giving her permission, even though they tried to help me remember by telling me the circumstances and what we talked about.

Tom says I've not been getting enough sleep. I don't know. I go to bed no later than ten, and lately I think I've been sleeping pretty well. Samuel has been sleeping all night, anywhere from 8 to 11 hours. During the day I lie down with him when he needs nursed, and sometimes doze off. I did go through about a week or so of not being able to sleep, no matter how hard I tried. But that hasn't been the case lately.

It is hard for me to stay focused. If I am interrupted while writing, I have to read the whole paragraph, sometimes the whole blog post over again to try to remember what I was writing. Sometimes I totally lose my thought and end up deleting the half sentence I just wrote because I have no idea what I was trying to say. That is why I haven't been blogging lately.

I have not gotten the garden finished yet. I just can't keep my mind on it. I go out to do some planting, and find I can't think what I am supposed to do. Same for a lot of other chores, like laundry or sewing or cleaning.

I've got my children worried. Last night Elijah asked if Alzheimer's runs in the family. And Sarah remembered reading about a woman who began to be easily confused, especially about where she was, when she was younger than I am. I am 42.

I don't know what the problem is, but I ask you to pray for me. I don't think I have anything major on my conscience. Fellowship with the Lord has been sweet lately. I do think I am too busy. I am gone from home a lot, but haven't been able to help it. It's all been necessary, mostly related either to ministry or shopping I absolutely had to do. I did mark on my calendar all the days I want to STAY HOME for the rest of this month.

How to have a servant's heart, part 1

2008-06-02T06:10:00.004-04:00

"The aged women likewise, that they be in behavioiur as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; that they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed." --Titus 2:3-5

"Let not a widow be taken into the number under three-score years old, having been the wife of one man, well reported of for good works; if she have brought up children, if she have lodged strangers, if she have washed the saints feet, if she have relieved the afflicted, if she have diligently followed every good work. ... I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully." --1 Timothy 5:9-10, 14

"Now there was at Joppa a certain disciple named Tabitha, which by interpretation is called Dorcas: this woman was full of good works and almsdeeds which she did." --Acts 9:36

"I commend unto you Phebe our sister, which is a servant of the church which is at Cenchrea: that ye receive her in the Lord, as becometh saints, and that ye assist her in whatsoever business she hath need of you: for she hath been a succourer of many, and of myself also." --Romans 16:1-2

"Greet Priscilla and Aquila my helpers in Christ Jesus: who have for my life laid down their own necks: unto whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles." --Romans 16:3-4

"Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet, and heard his word. But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me. And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: but one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her." --Luke 10:38-42

"There they made him a supper; and Martha served: but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him. Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment." --John 12:2-3

For years I have had the impression, and heard it preached, that we should be Marys and not Marthas. That you can't be both. That Mary chose the better part, and so should we. That we should be in the presence of the Lord all the time, and not be serving. That Martha did not learn her lesson the first time, that she didn't grow, that she's still stuck in the serving mode the second time a year later.

If all that is true, then what do we do with the other verses in the New Testament, the ones that clearly teach that we must work and serve? What about all those women who worked and served, and were commended for their working and serving?

All this time I've thought that the difference between Mary and Martha was in what they did. I now believe the difference lay in the attitude of the heart. We all have different gifts and abilities. I believe Martha's gift was serving. She just needed to adjust her attitude about it.

There is a major difference between Martha's first service in Luke and her second service in John. More on that next.

How to become really beautiful

2008-05-31T09:40:00.004-04:00

I found this on another blog. I really like this; it is so biblically true.

Mirror, mirror on the wall...
Who's the fairest of the all?
Not the girls with hateful heart,
Poison tongue like stinging dart.
Fairest she, who sheds forth love,
Gentle thoughts from God above,
Beauty blossoms in the face
When the heart is filled with grace

Mirror, mirror on the wall...
Who's the fairest of the all?
Not the girl with sullen eye,
Pouting lips that fret, defy.
Fairest she whose moods are bright,
Happy rainbows of delight.
Faces wreathed in joy declare
God's own beauty dwelling there.

Mirror, mirror on the wall...
Who's the fairest of them all?
Not the unchaste, brazen maid,
Flaunting, flippant, unafraid.
Fairest she whose heart is pure,
Manner modest, grace demure
Virtue crowns this girl a queen
For her life shines true and clean.

Mirror, mirror, tell me who
Can my countenance renew?
Jesus Christ, God's righteous Son,
Altogether Lovely One!
Fairest of Ten Thousand! Yes,
He can give you loveliness!

-Emily Hunter

"Favor is deceitful and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the LORD, she shall be praised." -- Proverbs 31:30

"Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; but let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price." -- 1 Peter 3:3-4

Hammy

2008-05-28T06:35:00.005-04:00

This place begins to look more and more like a little farm. I didn't really want a pig, but our neighbours thought Sarah would love him. They wanted a pig, but couldn't get just one. They bought two for $10 each, and gave Sarah the extra one. The next day, after both pigs got loose and ran around in our back yard (on a Sunday morning), the neighbours decided they didn't want a pig after all. No, we did not take it.

Anyway, Hammy (also known as Porky) is destined to bless our table come fall. Yum.

Heirloom Acres Seeds

2008-05-23T12:41:00.003-04:00

I am in the middle of planting my garden. I am almost done planting all the cool weather crops, then I will have a little bit of a break while I wait for the ground to be warm enough for the rest of the seeds/plants.

Here is a seed company I like to deal with. They are a Christian company with good service and generous quantities of seeds. With this company, you get a lot more seeds for a lot less money than you would at your average garden center. Plus, they are open-pollinated, meaning you can save your own seed from year to year. And they tell you how to do that, in case you're a beginner at seed saving, like I am.

Children in day care

2008-05-21T07:54:00.002-04:00

I was alerted to this on another blog. If you work, and put your children in day care, do they get to play outside at all?

May 6, 2008, 9:26 am

The Flip-Flop Factor: Why Day Care Kids Don’t Play Outside

What’s keeping your child inside? (Sara Cedar Miller/Central Park Conservancy)

Outdoor play at day care centers is often stifled because a child arrives wearing flip-flops or without a coat or because teachers don’t feel like going outside.

Those were some of the surprising findings from a new study of children’s physical activity in day care settings. More than half of American children between the ages of 3 and 6 are in child care centers or preschools.

Researchers at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center held focus groups with staff members at 34 area child care centers to learn more about how kids spend their time in day care and the reasons they may or may not spend time outside.

Many of their answers were unexpected. Day care workers keep children inside if they show up in flip-flops rather than sneakers or if they don’t have a coat on a chilly day. Sometimes, the entire class is kept indoors if one child doesn’t have appropriate clothes for outdoor play. One problem is that parents who don’t want their child going outside on a given day will intentionally keep the child’s coat so he or she will be kept indoors.

One surprising problem the researchers learned was about the mulch used to landscape playgrounds and outdoor spaces at day care centers. Staff members complained that kids eat the mulch or use it as weapons, or it gets caught in their shoes, making outdoor play troublesome for teachers.

“It’s certainly not something that we had anticipated as an issue, but judging by the amount of and intensity of the discussions among child care teachers, it really is,'’ said Dr. Kristen Copeland, assistant professor of pediatrics and the study’s lead author.

The feelings of teachers and parents also influenced whether children played outside. Although children learn important gross motor and social skills on the playground by learning to kick a ball or negotiate with another child for a turn on the swing, teachers said they felt pressure from some parents who were more concerned with children spending time on academic skills like reading and writing.

Some workers said outdoor play is too much trouble because it requires time to bundle up kids during cold weather. Other staff members just said they didn’t like going outside.

“Finding out what the barriers are is the first step in addressing the problem and getting more kids involved in more much-needed physical activity,” Dr. Copeland said.

The research, which was funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, was presented Monday at the annual meeting of the Pediatric Academic Societies in Honolulu.

The virtual mom

2008-05-12T08:25:00.002-04:00

The year was 1999. We had six children, and had just moved from Texas to New York state. We had recently acquired internet and were now, for better or for worse, connected to the world wide web. It was all so fascinating: all those websites with information on anything that might interest anyone. And search engines made finding all that information so much easier than using the card catalog at the library. Before I knew it, I was hooked.

I collected and printed all sorts of things, organizing that information into categories: activities for preschoolers, recipes, things to do as a family, gardening ideas, how to care for and then butcher all sorts of farm animals, how to tan hides, etc.

E-mailing was exciting. I could keep in constant touch with all the friends I ever left behind during our many moves from state to state (and later from country to country). No more waiting for the regular mail to come.

Then I discovered forums. What fun! Talking to total strangers about anything and everything. Now I was addicted.

I heard about women who were becoming virtual moms and neglecting their homes. Tom and I even counseled with a couple whose marriage eventually fell apart because the wife was online so much. I thought, those people are crazy to throw away their real lives for a virtual dreamworld.

Can anybody spell H-Y-P-O-C-R-I-T-E?

All that seems ridiculous to me now. All those ideas? I actually used a very tiny fraction of them. E-mailing is almost as bad as snail mail, for all the replies I actually get. And forums became so much boring gossip.

I am free now. I'm free because God convicted me of sin in this matter, and made me see that my real, flesh and blood family is my priority--and not a drudgery, either, but a great, wonderful blessing. I'm free because I told Tom about my struggles and he very kindly disconnected the internet for me for several months to help me get past my addiction.

And now I must get off my computer. I've gone past my allotted time. We're ready for Bible time and breakfast, then we'll do some quick straightening up, make the beds, and go outside. We're hosting a picnic for Victoria Day next week, and we've got some yard work to do. Also, my garden is calling me. I want to start planting this week.

So if I'm not on here for a while, picture me outside with my children and wish me a happy spring.

He's leaving home today

2008-05-02T10:49:00.002-04:00

My oldest son is moving out today. Most of his worldly goods are packed up and piled on the trailer ready to be hauled away to his new apartment this afternoon.

Should I cry? Rejoice? Do a happy dance? Get a longer apron string to tie him with? Send him off with a big shove to make him hurry?

Here are my random thoughts:

**He should stay home until he gets married, and continue being part of the family.

**He should move out and prove that he can stand on his own two feet before he gets married.

**He should move out for now, and then later move back home again. He will have proven that he can live independently, but will have decided he doesn't like living on his own.

Most families go through a transition period called college. The child goes to college, but comes home for breaks and summer vacation. By the end of college, the family has adjusted to life without the child, and the child has gained independence and/or a spouse.

But for us, things are a little more sudden. Last night he was living with us full-time. Tonight he will be living on his own full-time. No transition, no adjustment period.

Okay, I'm happy for him. This will be good for him. But I want my little boy back.

Strange things heard at our house recently

2008-04-28T10:16:00.004-04:00

"No, Timmy. Eat your potatoes first. Then you can have more broccoli."

"No, Johnny. Finish your ice cream first. Then you can have more olives."

Those quotes both came from a parent (I won't say which one). The following quote is even better. It came from another child.

"NOOO, Timmy!!! That's MY broccoli!!"

What a public-schooled kid has to say about home schooling

2008-04-27T09:46:00.011-04:00

I'll continue with the topic of time management with computers, but first I wanted to tell you about my cousin, Elizabeth. I first met her when she was about 6 weeks old, when I spent a week with her family. Over the years since then I have enjoyed watching her grow-- physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually.

Elizabeth has been public-schooled her entire life, including some of her college training. On the surface, she appears (to those who don't know her) to be a career-minded person currently working on her doctorate in music. She is very talented in piano and is working toward the goal of being a concert pianist. She is also teaching piano. She is single, she travels the world, and has the world at her feet, so to speak.

But there is another side to Elizabeth. Actually, I don't think it's "another side." I think it's the real Elizabeth. You don't have to spend too much time with her before one characteristic begins to stand out: she is very family oriented, and would love to have her own husband and children with whom to love and serve God. If and when God chooses to bless her with a godly husband, she plans to be a stay-at-home, home-schooling mom. I asked her recently why a public-schooled kid would be so positively FOR home schooling that she would be against any other kind of education for her children. Here is her answer:

#1 I want my children to learn about God, Jesus, the Bible, and to not feel afraid to pray out loud, and worship God as we were created to do. And I certainly don't need the school principal suspending them because they have infringed on their peers "freedom of religion"

#2 While every child needs to know how to function and get along in the real world, there are a few things I think my kids can go without learning about until they are older. Such as? Well, violence, sexual promiscuity, bad language, etc. I can share several stories of children saying things to me as a kid that caused me to learn about things no child should be learning about. In fact, at one point, a group of boys I went to school with were threatened to be suspended from school because the things they said to be on a day-to-day basis were so terrible. I remember HATING waking up in the morning and going to school because if I stood up for myself, the teachers would reprimand me, instead of the people verbally abusing me.

#3 Children have a right to wake up, go to school, learn, and never be afraid that the school might blow-up because someone brought a bomb to school. Think I'm exagerating? No! I have memories of sitting on the school hill-side in Michigan, on a regular basis, because of bomb-drills, waiting to make sure the school wasn't going to blow-up, before we could go back inside. About 6 years after that I was living in WV where book-bags were either not permitted, or only those that were see-through or mesh. We also had a team of police officers that swatted us down as we entered the school doors, to make sure we weren't armed. And when we did have actual bomb or other violent warnings at school, we were not permitted to call our parents and be picked up. Instead, we got out of classes early to sit in a gymnasium for a pep-rally, led by the school principal, to convince us that whomever was making the threats couldn't scare us or keep us from going to school...not very comforting!

#4 Kids don't need to wake up at 6am, go to school from 7-3, and then spend all night doing homework. It makes more sense to me to teach school, and get the homework done by evening. This way you can actually spend family time doing other things..church, music, going to a museum, taking a walk, doing things kids like to do, like going outside to play!

#5 The home-schooled people I have known have always been smarter, on average, than most public-schooled kids I have known. I think it's fair to say a lot of home-schooled seniors (in high school) are smarter than most college grads I know. They also seem to have better work-ethic when they are on their own. Maybe part of this is because many public schools have eliminated having to read entire books, and writing essays. Everything is so dumbed down that many college students don't even know how to write a college-level paper.

#6 Home-schooled kids are only sheltered if parents make them that way. They can have social skills equal to public-schooled kids, as long as the parents make an effort to involve them in church activities, home-school umbrella groups, and other activities. They get to develop social skills without parents worrying as much about their kids picking up un-Godly habits.

#7Children spend less time sitting in class while the teacher struggles with the "troubled students" and more individual attention, helping each child meet their potential.

#8 More flexibility with scheduling. If the family wants to take a vacation, have a reunion, or whatever, we can take our work with us, and pick up when we need to. We don't have to worry about driving to school on bad snow days, or getting behind on school work because of it. We can work things around our schedule, instead of the other way around.

I probably sound very idealistic explaining my feelings. I realize that kids will pick up bad habits, do things they shouldn't, and just be kids, no matter where they go to school. But, if I can do something to assure that my kids grow up happy, healthy, safe, and with a knowledge of God, they have a greater chance of being happy, healthy, and most importantly, Godly, adults. And while I was public schooled, and yes, obviously had to work through my issues, there are many things I wish would have been different from my school-days. The grass is always greener on the other side, but in this case, I think the grass actually IS greener.

Oh yeah, lastly, #9 I think home-schooling will be fun, and educational for both them and me!

I couldn't have said it better myself. If you want to learn more about Elizabeth, visit her blog here.

Should I be on the computer now?

2008-04-21T07:37:00.003-04:00

I quote myself from an earlier post:

Are there better things to do with my time than being on the computer? That depends on the time of day. I have chosen to allot a certain time each day to be on the computer, rather than being on randomly throughout the day. This way my computer time does not interfere with what I should be doing in my home or with my family.

This specifically regards internet use, since that is where I tend to spend a lot of time. You probably know how it goes: you're looking something up for some specific purpose. Maybe you need a recipe, or you're doing some type of research, or you're ordering something from an online company. Somewhere in the process something catches your eye and you click on a link. That leads you to another link, and another, until suddenly you realize that an hour has gone by and you've gotten totally sidetracked from your original purpose for being on the internet.

If you visit my blog regularly, you've probably noticed that I did not post at all last week. I was on the internet some, but never really had time to post. My priorities are shifting from inside the house (the winter mode) to outside the house (the spring clean-up-the-yard mode). I am also determined to finish school ON TIME this year! So I decided to limit my computer time to 15 minutes a day. The rest of the day is filled with normal every day stuff (laundry, dishes, cooking, etc.), home school, and spring cleaning. Also, it's that time of year again when I go through everybody's clothes and list what we need to buy/sew before summer. Oh, and let's not forget all the time it takes to nurse a hungry newborn!

On that note, I leave you with this verse, that states what our very first priority should be:

"As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: if so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious." --1 Peter 2:2

How God ordains the affairs of men

2008-04-13T21:32:00.002-04:00

God doesn't do things the "normal" "simple" way. No, His ways are lots more interesting.

We were running late tonight, so I was not really happy to hear the van make a strange, not-good sort of sound when I started it up. Tom came out and listened to it, looked over the engine, checked the dash to see if any warning lights were on, and decided we'd probably be okay. So we left for church. We went a different way than Tom because we needed to pick up three sons who had started walking. Tom went on the freeway.

We were almost to Cornwall when suddenly I could no longer accelerate. In fact, when I pushed on the gas, the van actually went slower. So I just sort of drifted along, thankful that there wasn't much traffic. I was trying to get closer to town so that we wouldn't have too far to walk to get to a phone. Then the engine just stopped. The steering went stiff and I couldn't use the brakes. So I pulled off the road and coasted to a stop.

Josiah offered to go call Tom, and Sarah and Ben decided to go with him. They got out of the van, and Josiah said, "Hey, Mother, you have a flat tire!" Right. When do you get a dead engine and a flat tire at the same time? I hadn't even noticed any thumping. It must have gone flat just as I was pulling over. Maybe I ran over a nail or something.

So those three left to go find a phone while Elijah and I stayed with the three little boys at the van. Elijah decided to try to change the tire while we were waiting. Meanwhile, I got Samuel out of his carseat and fed him. While I kept watch for Tom, I noticed a silver car pull into the park behind us. It turned around and came up behind our van. A man got out and asked if we needed any help. There wasn't anything he could do, so we started talking. The conversation went like this:

Man: "Are you a Christian?"

Me: "Yes."

Man: "I just wondered because I noticed your long hair. Are you Pentecostal?"

Me, chuckling a little: "No."

Man: "Well, what are you?"

Me: "Baptist."

Man, his face lighting up: "Really? What church do you go to?"

Me: "Cal--"

Man, interrupting me: "Calvary Baptist Church?"

Me: "Yes."

Man: "On Pitt Street?"

Me: "Yes."

Man: "That's great! I'm on my way there; I wanted to visit tonight."

As we continued our conversation, he told how he had called the church but got the answering machine. He tried to find our church, but couldn't figure out how to get there since part of Pitt Street is one way. So he was wandering around, trying to decide what to do. When he stopped to see if we needed help, he was way off course. As I was trying to give him directions, Tom pulled up.

It was getting too close to service time, so Tom decided to leave the van there. He had picked up the three who had called him, so there was no way to get everyone in the car. Our visitor graciously offered to take some in his car. Between the two cars there was exactly enough room.

Why does God do things this way? I mean, He could easily have gotten our visitor there the normal, quiet way visitors usually come to a church. He could have held our van together and not let the tire go flat. We could have gotten to church without any mishap, just like usual. Why did He arrange our paths to cross this way?

I don't know why. But I am rejoicing that God has a sense of humor. I love to see how God works this way. Some day I'll tell you how God used a bumper sticker, a can of beer and some missing laundry detergent to get us into Canada in the first place. But here's another little story I just thought of.

Some years ago while we were living in Texas, a man visited my dad's church in Pennsylvania. My dad got to talking with him and found out that this man was from Texas. My dad said, "Really? My daughter lives in Texas. What town are you from?"

Well, as most people know, Texas is huge. The odds are very slim that this man would be from anywhere near where we lived. So the man answered, "Oh, I'm from a really little town in Texas that you probably never heard of: Elmendorf."

My dad says, "Oh, that's the very town where my daughter lives!"

As it turned out, we knew this man. He went to our church.

George Street and Mr. Genor

2008-04-12T07:15:00.002-04:00

I found this link on another blog this morning. I've heard this before (thanks to the same blogger) but it definitely was good to hear it again. Out of gratitude to God for saving him, Mr. Genor committed his life to witnessing to 10 people a day as much as he was able.

Go here to hear the story.

On a side note...here's a question

2008-04-11T10:06:00.002-04:00

The Young Ladies Christian Fellowship has a website. Now I know that there is such a thing. I never knew that before. On their website, they have a page or two of courtship stories. Somebody put Tom and me on there. There is our picture, and a link to my blog posts about our courtship and marriage. I found this out because I finally took the time to look at my visitor stats this morning. In the last two days at least 8 different people accessed my blog through that link.

I don't necessarily care that this was done, but I wonder: Who put the link to my blog on the YLCF site?

To my brother Clyde (and anyone else who wants to know): If you want a stat counter and a way to know who visits your site, I use www.statcounter.com. Go there and follow instructions for setting it up on your site.

Time with computers

2008-04-10T21:42:00.003-04:00

Well, I definitely was surprised...my last post generated more comments than I've ever gotten for one post before. And the hit count for my blog jumped. Did I hit a nerve? Or did I just happen to hit on a hot topic?

Several thoughts come to mind, which I'd like to think about more in future posts.

1. Are there better things to do with my time than being on the computer? That depends on the time of day. I have chosen to allot a certain time each day to be on the computer, rather than being on randomly throughout the day. This way my computer time does not interfere with what I should be doing in my home or with my family. (Note to other bloggers: if my IP address shows up on your visitor stats more than once or twice a day, kindly remember that other people in my family use my computer for internet use. :) )

2. Does visiting other blogs and/or websites count as "wandering about from house to house" as described in 1 Timothy 5:13? I'm going to suggest that depends on what your purpose is in visiting all those sites. It also depends on what you could (or perhaps should) be doing instead, as mentioned above. And I think we need to consider the particular women who were doing the wandering, and why they had that opportunity to wander, whom Paul was addressing. In other words, we need to look at 1 Timothy 5:13 in its context.

3. Is this an area that requires "balance" and "self-control" or is it an area that should be completely cut out? I think we'd all agree that each person needs to answer that for herself. Personally, I find it much easier to be an "all or nothing" kind of person (either feast to the max or fast totally) than to exercise self-control (eating neither too much nor too little). Yet self-control is what I need most to practice.

These are thoughts I plan to explore in future posts. I am not sure which I will tackle first. Stay tuned, if you wish.

Life with computers

2008-04-04T18:12:00.003-04:00

Did you ever time yourself on the computer? I am going to do that for one week. For me, that includes everything done online, all DVDs watched, some CDs listened to, as well as all offline computer work. The DVD player is attached to our computer because we don't have a TV. I know I spent more time on the computer during the last three months or so than I usually do. I chalk this up to not following a regular routine due to sickness and childbirth.

Have computers changed the way we communicate? If so, is this good or bad? Here are a couple of observations:

I don't get very many snail-mail letters anymore. I don't send very many, either, since usually it's all old news by the time the letter gets there.

Certain children I know don't bother much with learning to spell since either they use spell check, or they figure everybody knows what they mean anyway.

I asked God to help me communicate better with my oldest daughter. We started exchanging thoughts and observations and even a few apologies via blog-land. This proved to be a good stepping stone, and now we communicate face to face very well (in my opinion).

And here's a true story: Several years ago, my son Nate was IM-ing his grandma and his cousin, who were both in the same house but using separate computers. His grandma asked him to remind his cousin to take out the garbage. In other words, Grandma-in-Pennsylvania asked Nate-in-Canada to remind cousin-at-Grandma's-house to take out the trash.

Recently my good friend Twinklemoose gave me something else to think about. Like a lot of women, I have a list of blogs I visit regularly. If you're like me, here's a question to think about:

Could wandering around the internet count as "wandering about from house to house" as mentioned in 1 Timothy 5:13? More about that in a later post.

The Monstrous Regiment of Women

2008-04-03T07:55:00.003-04:00

Thanks to Paul from Tennessee for alerting me to the video, The Monstrous Regiment of Women. I have not see the full documentary, but this trailer looks great. If you are not a feminist, you will appreciate this all-female cast video. If you are a feminist, this may open your eyes to some things you never thought of before. In fact, some Christians who say they are against feminism may find that they've adopted some feminist philosophies without realizing it.

Here's the trailer:

Get out of jail free

2008-03-29T08:20:00.002-04:00

A young man gets out of jail.

"What's he going to do now?" I ask.

"Well," Tom replies, "The System tells him not to worry about getting a job right away. He should just go on welfare and slowly ease himself back into society."

"That's ridiculous! He'll just ease himself back into crime!"

Of course, Tom knows this. That's why he intends to set up an intense discipling program with this particular young man. Please pray for him, and the young man. If God's grace does not intervene he will very likely be back behind bars all too soon.

Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth. --Ephesians 4:28

And along the same lines, do you have any idea just how many people are in need of intense, one-on-one spiritual counseling? I will tell you that I can give you a list of names too long for Tom and me to handle. (Especially Tom, since my priority is for my children. I only have one on my list.) So while you are praying, consider this verse:

Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth laborers into his harvest. --Luke 10:2

Home again, home again, jiggety jig

2008-03-28T15:32:00.002-04:00

Samuel and Timothy came home today. We are all one big happy family again. As I continue to recover, we will slowly get back to some kind of routine. The report on Samuel was that since he was born three weeks early, he had more problems with his temperature and jaundice than babies born later. He is still a little jaundiced, but not enough to keep him in another day. Timothy is now officially considered asthmatic, and has two puffers now. He has a somewhat complicated schedule to follow for the next ten days or so, with puffers and antibiotics.

Altogether the meds cost close to $150, but that's not so big a deal when you consider that our taxes cover the cost of doctors and hospitals here in Canada. The paper said today that the average overnight hospital stay in Canada is over $7000! When we lived in the States, we could not afford health insurance. At that rate, we'd have had bills totaling no less than $91,000 just for all the hospital stays our family has had since last October. Add in the doctor/midwife fees, lab fees, ultrasound, and other miscellaneous things....I'm quite happy to pay $150 for Timmy's meds.

Abby, Ben and Elijah worked really hard these last few days getting caught up in their math. We need to work on history and writing. We never did get any science this year, although I did try to have them do a few nature studies reports related to the geography that correlates with their history. Thankfully, Sarah has been keeping up with her schoolwork on her own, though she has gotten behind some since helping me.

Another thing to work on now that Samuel is born: being active outside. I told Abby that as soon as I am completely recovered I am going to race her to the end of the horse farm driveway that borders part of our property. She says she'll beat me. She probably will--at first. But just let her wait, I'll beat her before the end of the summer. That and biking, gardening and hiking are going to get me back into shape. Last year I wanted to get one of those buggies for children that you hook onto the back of your bike. John and Timmy would love it, but Samuel will still be too small. I'm going to make a sling for him, though, for when we go hiking.

More of the ground shows through the snow. The drifts made by the snowplows are still about three feet deep, and there are mountains of snow piled up in parking lots all over town. Behind the hospital there is a whole field where they dumped the whole winter's worth of snow from the hospital parking lots. That's all going to take a while to melt. But more of the geese are coming back, and the air smells of spring.

Update

2008-03-27T20:38:00.004-04:00

So I am posting for my mom since she is at the hospital. She asked me to write something so that everybody would be updated on what was happening with Timothy and Samuel.

What I know is that Timmy is a lot better and should be coming home tomorrow, Samuel's bilirubin count is too high so he is under ultra violet rays for now. I don't think its anything serious, my mom says that is "normal" for early babies. But he should becoming home tomorrow as well after another blood test. Sorry to everybody who heard his bilirubin count was too low, I was busy when my mom called so I didn't really catch everything she said.

But thats whats up, thanks for your prayers.

Samuel update

2008-03-27T06:50:00.002-04:00

Yesterday Celine, my midwife, came to check on Samuel. His temperature was down again, so I had to bundle him up with the heating pad again. She consulted with a pediatrician, who said he wants to see him, to see why he's not holding his temperature. So an appointment was made for us for 8:30 this morning. They were kind enough to have us come to the hospital, to the same floor where Timothy is, so I will get to see him today.

Last night Samuel's nose started running, and I listened to him sneeze and snuffle all night. Since he was bundled into bed with me all night, his temp this morning was 36.5 Celsius, which is what it should be. But because his diaper leaked onto his clothes, I had to completely change him. I tried to hurry, but just doing that brought his temp down to 35.7! For those of you who are used to Fahrenheit, that means he went from 97.7 down to 96.3 (measured under the arm) in about 5 minutes.

Tom is getting the van warmed up, so I need to get Samuel ready to go. Will let you know more later.

Introducing Adlyn Morrison, a book, and a DVD

2008-03-26T14:00:00.006-04:00

I am adding a new link to my blog roll. Adlyn Morrison is a Christian African-American living in Chicago. She writes about the difficulties of following Christ and the biblical pattern for femininity and godly womanhood in a culture where feminism reigns supreme and good, responsible men (not to mention godly men) are hard to find.

If you have time, take a look. In my opinion, the African American/Canadian family has suffered more than any other from the attacks of feminism and Marxism. The Church has been so duped by the same ideologies that she has been unable or unwilling to affect any lasting change on this or any other culture.

I recently read a book called So Much More, written by two teenage sisters, that exposes the lie of Marxism/feminism and shows how it subtly infiltrated the Church during the 20th century. The book, which is thoroughly researched and well written, is meant to show Christian daughters how they can "rise above their God-hating culture and change it for the better." I highly recommend it. If you're interested, you can order it here or here.

We also got the DVD put out by the same sisters, called The Return of the Daughters. From the back of the DVD: "This highly-controversial documentary will take viewers into the homes of several young women who have dared to defy today's anti-family culture in pursuit of a biblical approach to daughterhood, using their years between childhood and marriage to pioneer a new culture of strength and dignity...and to rebuild Western Civilization, starting with the culture of the home." You can view the trailer for this film here. I believe this is another must-have for any family, even if they only have sons.

I hear, however, that the same family is working on something for the guys.

A little bit of this and that

2008-03-26T07:59:00.002-04:00

Once again our son Timothy is in the hospital with bronchiolitis. One more time and he should be "officially" diagnosed with asthma. We find that a bad cold brings on the asthma symptoms, so we've been putting the puffer on him whenever he starts developing cold symptoms. This time, though, things got progressively worse instead of better, so Tom took him into emergency yesterday.

Originally Tom planned to have Josiah stay overnight with him, but decided against that, thinking it better to have a parent there at night. Timothy gets worse at night, which is why he was flown to CHEO the last time. Thankfully that did not happen this time. This morning the doctor said Timothy will need to stay another night, so Josiah is staying with him now to let Tom come home to sleep.

Samuel is doing well. We have to keep him bundled up to help him keep his temperature up where it should be. He is wearing a long-sleeved undershirt, a short-sleeved undershirt, a pair of socks, a light-weight sleeper, a heavy sleeper, and a hat. He is wrapped burrito-style in a blanket and tucked into my bed under a flannel sheet and two quilts. This keeps his temperature between 36 and 36.5 Celsius, which is where it should stay.

John, Elizabeth, Abigail, Benjamin and Sarah all have cold symptoms ranging from sore throat and nasal congestion to full-blown coughing-all-the-time cold. My throat is scratchy. And when Tom called this morning it was hard to tell if he is stuffed up or just groggy from lack of sleep.

BUT.......

Spring is "officially" here according to the calendar, and the snow is melting bit by bit every day. The days are warmer and usually sunny. And although the snow is still pretty deep most places, there are a few bare-ground spots showing through here and there. Give us another few weeks and hopefully we'll have flowers starting to poke through. I planted a lot of daffodils last fall, and also dug up and divided an iris clump. I'm eager to see how they all do this year. I've got other gardening plans in mind that I can't wait to get going on.

We also hope to do our roof this spring, and start getting the inside of the house renovated. Josiah has plans to help with that, including setting money aside to help pay for it, instead of paying rent like Nathanael does. I've actually been setting aside some of Nate's rent to put toward all that, also.

That's it for now. Thanks to all who have been praying for us.

7 pounds 3 ounces and other details

2008-03-23T09:48:00.002-04:00

Here is my new son, Samuel Thomas Newton. He is my perfectly good reason for staying home from church today.

On Friday at noon I arrived at the hospital to meet with the obstetrician. He did an ultrasound which showed Samuel in head-down position (thankfully!) but still high. We decided to go with the induction because Samuel was still moving around a lot. First I was strapped to the fetal monitors for an hour, then moved to the birthing room. My midwife was also with me, although my case had been officially transferred to the obstetrician.

There they ruptured the membranes and started an IV with an antibiotic and oxytocin. Oxytocin is the hormone that starts labour. I lay on the bed, not being allowed to sit up for fear that the cord would come before the baby's head. That would have meant an automatic emergency C-section, the thing we were most trying to avoid. We needed the oxytocin to work to bring the head down more first.

After about 4 hours, they said his head was down enough that I could sit up a little while they doubled the dose of the oxytocin. I think it was about 6:30 p.m. when the obstetrician finally said I could sit fully upright, which is what works best for me to get the most effective contractions. By about 6:45 the contractions were intense enough for me to say they were quite painful. (After ten births I have developed a rather high pain tolerance! :) )

I heard the doctor say to the midwife that he was going to deliver the baby, and to let him know when it was time for him to come back. When he left the room, I asked Celine (my midwife) if I had to have him deliver. Nothing against him, I said, but Celine knows me, I know her, and we work well together. I said I'd rather have her do it. She left the room, and in 5 minutes she came back and said that she would to the delivery, but that the doctor would be nearby.

At just past 8 p.m. I was in transition, meaning that pretty soon I would start pushing. The doctor poked his head in, saw that we were doing fine, and then stayed in the hall till Samuel was born.

Samuel was born at 8:21 p.m. I held him for over an hour before I let Celine take him to weigh him. She guessed his weight at 7 lbs 2 oz while I said he couldn't be more than 7 pounds. He actually weighed 7 lbs 3 oz and measured 21 1/4 inches long. Tom dressed him then, while Celine helped me get cleaned up. I ate my first meal since breakfast, a very yummy (though not very nutricious!) ham salad sandwich, cookies, ice cream, and ginger ale. Nothing was open and that was all they had in the staff refrigerator.

We left the hospital just after 11:00 and got home at 11:30. Some of the children were still up and the others wanted wakened up. Timothy was not at all thrilled with his new brother that night, but the next morning he was pretty excited. He and John both said, "I wike him!" (Well, Timmy said "it"!)

So there are all the details. Samuel is sleeping now, so I'm going to try to sleep, too. I was awake most of the night with him. Just as I finally got to sleep, Timmy came in to snuggle with me. Then about an hour later John came in to sleep with us because the cat was bothering him in his bed. Tom, meanwhile, had taken over the couch. We need a bigger bed!

Actually, tonight we're going to make sure the big cat is outside and shut the little cat in the bathroom. And Tom is going to work with Timmy on having him stay in his own bed.

Baby update

2008-03-19T12:59:00.002-04:00

Two weeks ago a visit to the midwife showed the baby to be head down, in proper position and already beginning to drop. Since I was so far along in the pregnancy and have never had a breach baby, we fully expected him to stay that way.

Yesterday, however, the midwife said the baby had completely flipped to a head up position. She ordered an ultrasound, which I had done this morning. The baby is now in the transverse position, meaning that he is side ways--head to the right, bottom to the left. He is considered to be in an "unstable" position, meaning that he could continue flipping back and forth and up and down instead of settling into a good birthing position.

I am scheduled to meet with an obstetrician on Friday at noon. He will try to manually turn the baby into a good head-down position. Three things could happen then:

1.) He could fail in turning the baby. In this case, he will either opt to do a C-section, or wait to see if baby will turn himself. For transverse babies, a C-section is the only option for delivery, since the concern would be that, once in labour, the cord would come out first, posing danger for the baby.

2.) He could get the baby to turn into a good birthing position, and then immediately induce labour. This actually would be okay at this point, since I am 37 weeks and they estimate the baby to be already about 7 pounds. This would all be done at the hospital, with no option for home birth.

3.) He could get the baby to turn into a good birthing position, and then send me home, hoping baby will not turn again before I go into labour on my own. In this case, I would still have the possibility of a home birth. The risk in this is that the baby will continue to flip, increasing the possibility of an emergency C-section later on.

At this point, we (the midwives and I) are leaning more toward option #2. I really have a peace about all this. All through this pregnancy, I've had in the back of my mind the possibility of a hospital birth. I never had that in my thinking before, so maybe this was the Lord's way of preparing me for this weekend. My midwife was concerned that I would be stressed out about this, but I really am not. The Lord is in control of this, and He has given us midwives and a doctor who work well together (many midwife/doctor relationships are NOT good). They are always careful to give us their best professional advice and care, all the while leaving the final decisions up to us. Because of this, we don't feel that we are being forced into situations and treatments that we are not comfortable with.

Please pray with us. Between now and Friday, I am not to do anything whatsoever that could possibly cause labour. No fear of that; Sarah and Elijah "took over" today while I was gone, and said that I was to do nothing but "sit" from now till after baby is born. They are doing all the cooking, laundry, etc. Elijah even made some very delicious French bread this morning. And Sarah gave a couple of hair cuts.

So there you have it, folks. Now I have a two year old and a three year old who need naps, so I am going to lie down with them and read a book. Stay tuned for more news later.

Sleepy three year olds

2008-03-14T23:09:00.003-04:00

Outside my door just now, I heard John crying. I asked him what was the matter, and he said he wanted Daddy. Tom is not quite over his cold and is tired from snow camp, so he has been in bed asleep for a while. Not wanting to wake him, I asked John why he wanted Daddy. The following exchange took place:

John: "I need Daddy!"

Me: "What do you want Daddy for?"

John: "Because I don't know where to go."

Me, slightly puzzled: "Where should you be?"

John: "In bed."

Me: "So, why do you need Daddy?"

John, suddenly smiling like he realized how silly he was: "I don't know."

He turned and walked away. I asked him if he was going back to bed now. He chuckled and said, "Yes."

About those dogs

2008-03-14T09:27:00.002-04:00

My very good friend, who comments as "Prudence" on this blog, brought me some more dog food and two ten foot chains. So yesterday I chained the two dogs outside where they could play in the snow to their hearts' content. Not as much exercise as if they'd gone for a walk or played soccer with Ben, but enough that they were both more than ready to go back into their kennel in the evening.

Holding down the fort

2008-03-12T09:50:00.002-04:00

With half the family gone to snow camp, I'm home with four children ages 2, 3, 5 and 9. Abby and I are the only ones who don't have a cold. Timmy and John prefer to sleep in my bed when their older brothers are gone, which leaves me with about 8 inches of bed space. I tried to sleep in the living room last night, but Timmy came to look for me.

Something "fun" I get to do (besides taking the trash and the recycle bins to the road for pickup): I get to take care of two large, rambunctious dogs. In knee-deep snow. With only one too-short leash. That means leaving one dog in the kennel to bark while the other dog drags me through the snow. This morning I decided it was easier just to turn the dogs loose in the yard than to put my 8-months-pregnant self through the torture of being dragged through the snow. Snickers was a good dog and stayed in the yard, but while I went inside to get their water, Puppy ran away to the neighbours' yard. So I had to go fetch her. I also discovered that I do not have enough dog food to last till Friday. I will have to portion it out for them and make it last.

It's snowing again. Not a lot right now, but it's supposed to last till Friday, when it might turn to rain. I can handle rain. The place will be flooded with all the snow melting, but right now I think I will be so thankful for mud. It'll be tracked everywhere, but I don't think I'm going to care. The geese (the Canadian version of the spring-heralding robin) are coming back. Spring is coming!

And so is a baby. Only 4 weeks left!

Not your typical Sunday morning

2008-03-09T11:43:00.003-04:00

We have had to cancel Sunday services due to weather more often this one winter than in all the previous 7 winters combined since we've been in Canada.

Instead of going to church, the guys spent about two hours clearing out the driveway. The vehicles were stuck and had to be pushed so they could be moved out of the way. Our near neighbour came over with his snowblower and even our far neighbour came with his front loader to help take care of the end of the drive where the snowplows dumped more snow than the blower could handle.

The storm is officially over and the wind is dying down, so if Cornwall gets cleared out today we should be able to have church services this evening. I hope so. I haven't seen my oldest daughter since Thursday, when she went to stay overnight in Cornwall with a friend.

Timmy's fever rose in the night, but he's a little better now. I will probably keep him home tonight. He cried this morning when he wasn't allowed to go out in the snow with the guys.

Snow camp for our young people starts tomorrow. They definitely have the snow for it. And more snow, possibly mixed with rain, is in the forecast for Wednesday and Thursday. But, as someone said on some news station in the US, all this will only make us appreciate spring all the more.

This and that

2008-03-08T16:19:00.003-05:00

Sickness: Tom is getting over the flu, Timmy has another bad cold with cough-induced vomiting and a slight fever, and John is starting in on another cold. Lizzie is just beginning to sound a bit stuffy. I am sneezing.

Snow: We woke up to about six inches of fresh whiteness that fell during the night. The second part of the storm is still coming in, but we've already gotten another 4 inches through the day. We are supposed to collect more snow, mixed with ice pellets and/or freezing rain throughout tonight. This is the third snowstorm we've had in 8 days. If this is the lion that started March, then we're due for a nice, balmy lamb to end March. But I'm not holding my breath.

Pregnancy: One more month to go. I've got the urge to clean, clean, clean; and rearrange furniture, and box up stuff that is cluttering my room, and scrub walls, and..... But I also feel extremely heavy, and ready to lay this baby down. To that person who said she would gladly trade places with me, that last sentence was not meant to be a complaint. I'm excited about the birth. I finally allowed myself to get out the baby clothes and wash them yesterday. The midwife says the baby's head is down and he is beginning to drop! She also told me to wait until after her vacation, which ends on the 20th (I'm actually not due till April 10th). This will be her third delivery for me, and sometimes I think she's as excited as I am.

Timmy is asking to be on my lap, so I think I'll go sit on the rocker and direct traffic in the kitchen while we work on supper.

Submission to God, not more medication

2008-03-06T07:53:00.008-05:00

Yesterday I took six children to the eye doctor for their annual exam. While waiting, Ben picked up an old Maclean's magazine. A picture of a bald woman caught his eye, and he began reading the accompanying article. I leaned over to see what he was reading, and discovered the name of yet another disorder. This woman did not lose her hair to chemotherapy, she was not a skinhead, neither was there any other physical reason for her hair loss. No, she has a disorder called trichotillomania, a psychological condition where people feel compelled to pull out their hair.

We live in a society that is obsessed with disorders, manias and phobias. Common disorders include attention deficit disorder, bipolar disorder, post traumatic stress disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. There is a whole slew of manias. I found a long list of them here. And here is a long list of more phobias than you ever knew existed.

One problem with all these disorders, manias, and phobias is that once a person has a label, there is no cure for them. All they can hope for is to "control" the problem with medication and/or some type of therapy. (For example, one recommended therapy for trichotillomania is, oddly enough, rug hooking.) There is no real hope that they will ever get over their problems completely. Why? One reason is that waiting to treat all these patients is a whole army of psychologists and psychiatrists. And let's not forget all the pharmaceutical companies supplying myriads of medications. This is all big business. It would not be economically feasible to "cure" all those people.

Actually, the diagnosis of mental illness (the general term under which all these disorders, etc., fall), is usually not medically legitimate. One doctor working with thousands of cases like these would always send his patients for complete neurological exams and tests. The conclusions found that only about 3 per cent of all those cases actually had chemical or physical causes.

I am not denying that there is something extremely wrong with us and our society today. Something is terribly wrong. But the problem is not physical. It is spiritual. People like their labels because now they have a "legitimate" excuse to sin. Labels help a person remain self-centered instead of God-centered. A person who truly wants to glorify God with all his being will do whatever he can, through the grace of God, to rid himself of whatever "condition" he may have that causes him to focus on himself. He will learn to recognize his sin for what it is and will confess it as such and forsake it.

Do I sound harsh and uncaring? Unsympathetic? A surgeon has to cut into a patient, usually causing much pain, in order to help his patient. His patient recognizes that this pain is necessary for healing to take place. Yet when a Christian points to someone's sin, he is accused of being judgmental and harsh. But a person needs to know there is a sin problem before he can truly experience and appreciate the permanent cure that comes from God alone.

Because there really is a cure.

"Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. And the servant abideth not in the house forever: but the Son abideth ever. If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed" (John 8:34-36).

"For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind" (1 Timothy 1:7; note that the Greek word translated "sound mind" actually means "self-control" which is the very opposite of bipolar disorder and many other "mental" issues).

Too bad more of us aren't afflicted with hamartophobia.

Meditations in the night

2008-03-05T07:12:00.003-05:00

"....Abhor that which is evil, cleave to that which is good" (Romans 12:9).

The Greek word translated abhor means "to detest utterly".

Often I wake up in the night for one reason or another. Last night, during those waking moments, I kept thinking about two words: abhor and resist. Before going to bed, I was thinking of a couple of areas in my life where I am often tempted to sin. Both of these sins have a measure of enjoyment in them, as besetting sins usually do. I prayed that God would make me abhor those sins, not just merely resist the temptation. I resist the temptation to sin because I know that sin grieves the heart of God, and I know that any "enjoyment" is exceedingly short-lived. But often, even as I resist temptation, I find myself wishing I could go ahead. This wishing, of course, is still sin.

I want more than just to physically resist temptation. I want to abhor the sin itself. 1 Corinthians 10:13 speaks of a way of escape in the midst of temptation. James 1:12 tells of the crown of life given to those who endure temptation (meaning, they stand firm in the faith rather than give in to temptation). This is all useful information, of course. But what I want even more is what comes with much prayer, as found in this verse:

"Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak" (Matthew 26:41, emphasis mine).

I want to be in such close fellowship with Christ that I abhor my sin just as much as He does, to the point where it does not even tempt me. I know that there is no such thing as sinless perfection in this life, but I can still strive to be as holy as possible this side of glory.

About commenting...

2008-02-27T07:35:00.003-05:00

I enjoy having people comment on my blog. However, I am no longer allowing anonymous comments to stand. You can sign in on a blogger account, or you can give yourself a nickname. But if you make an anonymous comment, I will automatically delete it.

The reason is this: Recently an anonymous person has been making comments that scorn and mock everything I stand for. This person appears to have no use for Christians or Christianity. Now, if this person would have asked honest questions, and wanted honest answers, I would gladly have engaged in dialog with him/her. But this person appeared to have his/her mind already made up, and no amount of reasoning would have had any affect on him/her.

I know that some people will disagree with what I have to say on this blog. I have always expected that. But my comment box is not the place to hide behind anonymity while attacking my God and my faith.

Perfect timing

2008-02-26T18:03:00.003-05:00

It's in the seemingly little things in life where I especially enjoy seeing the caring hand of our Lord as He watches over us.

This morning it was my turn to drive the children to skating. We were all in the van, ready and waiting while Tom put in more brake fluid. It was just a little low, like there was maybe a slow leak in the line, but not major enough to try to fix it right away.

For those of you who don't know, when you put more brake fluid in, you have to have someone pump the brakes for you while you bleed all the air out of the lines. I have had LOTS of experience being the pumper over the last 21 years, so I knew something was MAJORLY different this time. I told Tom that it just didn't feel right at all.

The problem was that while I was pumping, the whole thing broke! So we all got out of the van (no skating today!) and Tom has spent the whole day fixing the brakes. As he was working on it, and testing things, the brake line on the other side broke, also. We were both surprised to find that both brakes were that bad.

So here's where God protected us: all this happened in the comfort of our own driveway, NOT while I was driving 30 minutes from home on a snowy day. Also, it didn't happen while Josiah was driving. Josiah just got his G-1 license (roughly equivalent to a permit in the US), and it would not have been a very pleasant introduction to driving to have the brakes fail on him just now!

Saturday

2008-02-23T09:31:00.003-05:00

Today is Saturday. What have you got planned for this evening? Are you having company over? Are you going to watch TV or a movie? Are you going out somewhere with friends?

Tomorrow is Sunday. Are you planning to join in fellowship with other believers in worship services? Or will you be too tired from whatever you're doing tonight? If you to go to church services, will your mind and heart be ready to receive the Word that will be taught and preached tomorrow? Or will your mind be on what you will have done tonight?

One of my "New Year's Resolutions" was to spend an extra hour in prayer every week. I have to confess that I haven't been faithful at keeping that hour every single week. I'd like to start again, this time purposely setting aside a specific time that will only be used for prayer. And I'd like to take up the challenge that Tom gave to all who attend our church to set Saturday night aside for prayer. As a mom, this means I need to work my day around making sure everybody is in bed by 8:30 at the very latest. This means having supper a little earlier, getting baths done promptly, and making sure everybody has their Sunday clothes ready. Then putting them to bed with their own prayer time before shutting myself away to pray by myself.

Pray for what? For Tom and other pastors who have the responsibility to give God's Word from the pulpit, and for the Sunday school teachers, that we may speak boldly. For the children in our church who do not know the Lord yet, who need to be convicted of sin. For those who do know the Lord, who need spiritual growth and encouragement.

Most of all, though, I want to pray for the power of God's Holy Spirit to be on the preaching. That power is so sadly lacking in most local churches in the western world today. This past week I watched a powerful sermon about why revival tarries. The message was so pointed that it convicted me personally on a number of things and made me weep. Yet when the message was over, the congregation of that church filed out in what appeared to be their normal way (normal for most churches, anyway). You would have thought that such a sermon would have had men, women and children on their knees, broken before God.

A similar experience occurred at a Bible conference in Pennsylvania a couple of years ago. After the man of God preached a powerful sermon on hell, the people went about their usual business of filing into the dining hall for their usual donuts and coffee. The man reporting this to us was amazed that God's people could so casually go about as normal after hearing such a sermon.

What happens when people pray for the men of God who preach His Word? Here is one example from Acts 4:

verse 29, the prayer: "And now, Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word."

verses 31 and 33, the answer: "And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness. And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all."

Here is another prayer that I have started praying, for Tom, the other preachers of our fellowship, and for David Bane as he prepares to speak to our youth:

Colossians 4:2-4 "Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving; withal praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds: that I may make it manifest, as I ought to speak."

Another great blog--Axe to the Root

2008-02-21T22:22:00.003-05:00

Some of you who know me will remember Nate Ellis. He has a blog describing his experiences as a street preacher. He also reports on other young men of God who are preaching all over the world. Click here, or on "Nate Ellis" in my side bar. (Actually, this blog is written by David Bane as well, a young man who we look forward to meeting in a few weeks when he comes to speak to our young people.)

Practical stuff

2008-02-21T07:22:00.003-05:00

Colossians 3

If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.

Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.

For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.

When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.

Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication [prostitution, adultery, incest], uncleanness [physical or moral impurity], inordinate affection [lust], evil concupiscence [harmful or evil desires], and covetousness, which is idolatry: for which things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience: in the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them.

But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.

Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him: where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.

Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.

And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.

And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.

Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord.

Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them.

Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord.

Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged.

Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh; not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but in singleness of heart, fearing God: and whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance; for ye serve the Lord Christ.

But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done; and there is no respect of persons.

A little bit about revival and me

2008-02-20T21:04:00.002-05:00

There was a time in my life when I was a young wife and mother that I was very materialistic. I had goals that were totally separate from Tom's goals. I thought that we could live together as husband and wife and still each do what we wanted.

I wanted a social life apart from my children, whom I saw as nuisances, though I tried to cover that up with an outward show of devotion to them. (That is, people outside my family thought I was fully devoted to my children as a godly mother should be. My children knew better.) I wanted material possessions such as a new car (not an old one that Tom had to constantly work with to keep running), our own nice big house (not a rental or a fixer-upper or a sardine can of a trailer), and plenty of money for things. I also wanted an old-fashioned farm. (I still go back and forth on that one.)

Tom wanted revival.

I strove hard to reach my goals by nagging Tom to be "more efficient" with our finances. I wanted to take over the money and spend or save it my way, for what I wanted. I looked at what others had and coveted. I planned, schemed, connived.

Tom worked just as hard at reaching his goal. He prayed. He fasted. He preached--in churches, in nursing homes, in truck stops, in rescue missions, in jails, wherever the door or pulpit was open to him. He passed out tracts on street corners. He shared (or tried to share) Christ with his family. He spoke of Christ to whoever would listen.

I am ashamed to say that Tom embarrassed me.

Did I miss that verse that asks, "How can two walk together except they be agreed?" Because there were only three options for our marriage: his way, my way, or no way. My goals were so totally opposite of Tom's goals that there could be no compromising.

Once I said to him, "What is it with you and revival? I am just so sick of hearing it from you." I don't remember his answer, but I will NEVER forget the look of hurt on his face.

I continued in this materialistic frame of mind for quite a number of years. In fact, you dear Canadians who asked us to come to your church did not get a godly pastor's wife. Thank God you did get a godly pastor. But I was not on board with him at all. When some of you helped us look for a house, and he told you I wanted to live in the country, I thought, "FINALLY I get MY way!"

But since I've been here God has been gradually working in me. The work was slow because of my own reluctance, but God never gave up on me. Why not? I don't know, other than that His mercies are great.

I'm different now. God has worked in me a desire for revival in my own soul. A rather weak desire at first, but it grew a little stronger every year. I'm not there yet. I've still got a long way to go. But this desire for revival is stronger now than ever. And I know now that this world, with all its things, is NOT my home. I'm just passing through. While I'm here, my light needs to burn for Christ, that all who see it will glorify HIM, and not me.

Why Revival Tarries

2008-02-19T05:56:00.003-05:00

Tom found Why Revival Tarries by Leonard Ravenhill among his books at the church, and brought it home to me yesterday. I plan to start reading through it at soon as I finish reading I Saw the Welsh Revival by David Matthews. At first, Tom did not know he still had that book, so I went looking for it on the internet. Here are two things that I found thought-provoking.

First, this article, which exposes who is to blame for the lack of revival in our local church.

Second, this book review by an unknown minister, which I quote here:

This book should come with a warning label on it saying: "If you want to destroy your life go ahead and read this book!" This book absolutely destroyed me in every way possible. I remember receiving this book from a friend in Philly and was in a bad season in my life and also remembering being scared to read the book. No wait I wasn't scared to read it I was absolutely terrified, and my pre-conceived notions were correct. Once I picked up that book I was as good as dead. I began to weep and groan for weeks and weeks. The burning words in those pages completely consumed me and scathed me. I was skinned and hung up for death. Everything in my life was burnt up and left in an ash heap before my feet, so that I had to turn to God and say what now? He replied and said do what I have always wanted you to do, die! Everything changed for me, prayer life, ministry, preaching, relationships, church, conduct, and everything else. I walked away broken, battered, and bruised from this book and have never been the same. So with that read this book unless you want to live in your 'normal' Christian life, but if you have enough guts to actually do what the bible says, let Ravenhill expose your fakeness and start all over again from step one!

Brother Marcel, if you are reading this, I want you to know that what you said at the business meeting keeps going through my mind: that revival does not come because we are not righteous. Here are the verses I keep thinking of also:

Psalm 24:3-5 "Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, not sworn deceitfully. He shall receive the blessing from the LORD, and righteousness from the God of his salvation."

A collection of excerpts from sermons about revival.

2008-02-18T08:20:00.003-05:00

This link is self explanatory. All I can say is, please, PLEASE watch. Watch and weep. Then ask, no, beg God to do for and in and through YOU. You might want to skip the song that comes in the middle, but the rest is definitely worth your time. It's about 35 minutes long.

A collection of excerpts from sermons about revival.

Ruth: Not the norm

2008-02-04T07:24:00.000-05:00

About a couple of years ago, someone challenged my "notion" that the girl should not make the first move in starting a courtship relationship. She used Ruth as a Biblical example supporting her in her right to ask the man of her dreams to declare himself for her.

Ruth is an exception. This is one of those "cultural" things that has spiritual lessons for us, but should not be taken as something women should do today. Nevertheless, there are some things women can learn from the way Ruth did conduct herself.

Ruth was not a Jew. She was not familiar with Jewish laws and customs. It isn't likely that she would have made any move at all were it not for Naomi's instructions. As a childless widow in the Jewish culture, she had the right to ask her deceased husband's nearest relative to "redeem" her, that is, to buy back her husband's land and property, marry her, and father children who would be considered the children of her deceased husband. This is not something women have the Biblical right to do today.

But what can we learn from Ruth? What sort of woman was she?

1. Ruth was a believer. She was won to the Jewish faith possibly by the love of her mother-in-law, Naomi. I say this because when Naomi opted to go back to Bethlehem, Ruth clung to her and begged to go with her. She pledged herself to Naomi and Naomi's God for life (Ruth 1:16-17). She had learned to love Naomi and the one true God, Jehovah. From then on, she determined to glorify God with her life. This love and devotion was noticed by Boaz (Ruth 2:11-12).

2. Ruth was a hard worker. She went out into the fields daily to glean enough grain for herself and Naomi to eat. You may think she did this out of necessity, but Ruth 2:2 shows that she volunteered for this job. She did not sit around waiting for someone else to do it. She was not lazy. You don't have to read very far in Proverbs before you find that lazy people would rather starve than work. This quality of being a hard worker was also noticed by Boaz. In fact, it was the one thing that made her stand out from all the other women in the field (Ruth 2:7).

3. Ruth was humble. She recognized that as a Moabite she did not have the right to receive the blessings God gave the Jewish people. She was surprised that Boaz would receive her so kindly into his fields (Ruth 2:8-10).

4. Ruth was obedient. She may not have understood the Jewish customs, but she obeyed Naomi's exact instructions in approaching Boaz (Ruth 3:5-6). She didn't question Naomi, she simply obeyed.

5. Ruth was grateful (Ruth 2:13). This is a necessary quality in any person's life. Do a word search with your concordance. You will find that thankfulness is much encouraged, even commanded, in the New Testament. Being truly grateful requires humility. The thankful person recognizes that someone else has done something for her that she perhaps could not do for herself. Some of us are more independently minded than others. It is hard for us to receive something because we want to do it ourselves. This is pride, and it robs ourselves and others of blessing. The thankful person also recognizes that she does not deserve this thing that someone has done for her. The proud person, on the other hand, is not thankful because she believes it is her right to have the given thing.

6. Ruth made herself attractive. This is something that is often missed by those who strive so much for modesty that they put down physical beauty. Boaz was used to seeing Ruth working up a sweat in the fields. He was attracted to her first by her character, but now was the time for her to clean herself up and look attractive physically. She took a bath, anointed herself, and put on clean clothes (Ruth 3:3).

Taking a bath is an obvious necessity that does not need explaining. Anointing herself with oil was the custom as part of making herself look nice physically. As a poor widow, she would not have had perfume to put on, but she used what she had. "Put thy raiment upon thee" suggests several possibilities. First, modesty (wearing clothes that marked her as chaste, not as a harlot). Second, it was now time to put off her widow's garments and put on something that showed that she now wished to be married again. Third, this was an occasion for wearing her best clothes.

7. Ruth received God's best for her in the choice of a husband. Ruth 3:10 suggests that Boaz was an older man, and that Ruth could have tried to get a younger husband. But the one thing that mattered most to Ruth was that she take what God provided for her.

8. Ruth was patient. She did not follow Boaz around, nagging at him to get busy about this business of making her his wife. She did not even go back to Boaz's fields to glean. She went home to Naomi and "sat still" until Boaz sent word himself (Ruth 3:16-18).

9. Ruth caused others to glorify God. She never sought glory or praise for herself. She lived her life quietly, honestly, and with humility. As a result, other women were made to praise God--probably one of the few times any Jew would rejoice in God's blessing to (and through) a Moabite (Ruth 4:14-15).

To my daughter

2008-02-02T14:31:00.001-05:00

Dear Sarah,

I should be writing about Ruth right now, but I can't seem to focus on that right now. Hopefully tomorrow afternoon I'll be able to get back to the courtship series. Right now I just wanted to write to you. At first I wasn't even going to give you this letter, let alone put it on my blog. But mother-daughter tensions are probably as old as Eve and her daughters, and I'm going to guess there are lots of other moms and daughters out there who will relate to this letter. Especially if they are part of a big family.

Did you know that sometimes I am jealous of you? You get to go to people's houses and eat tacos and drink root beer. I get to stay home and eat chicken for the umpteenth time, only this time in the rocking chair because I'm so dizzy I can't hold my head up at the table. You actually enjoy hockey. I never really had the opportunity to even learn to skate well. You've been strong and healthy all this fall and winter. Oh, I know you've had headaches and your knees bother you, but you've still been able to go to church and other places while I've had to stay home either sick myself or with sick toddlers.

This morning I've been having a bit of a pity party for myself. That's wrong. I realized today that I am hard on you and the others because you can do stuff that I can't. Stuff I want to do myself. This may sound strange to you, but I want to scrub the tub, clean the refrigerator, mop the floors, move the furniture to sweep behind it, work in your room with your sisters, give the baths, do the laundry, change the diapers, even walk the dogs--yes, even Puppy. I want to cook all the meals, take care of John and Timmy, and a myriad of other things that I don't even bother to ask anyone to do for me. But I can't.

When you don't do things my way, I should be thankful that those things are done at all. I should rejoice that you are developing into a beautiful young woman capable of doing many things, and doing them well. Instead, I'm only reminded again that I can't do it myself.

So I confess my selfishness to you--because that's what it is--as sin. I still need your help around here. Yours and everybody else's. And there does have to be some kind of standard. But I won't be so picky about every little thing anymore. And I won't take out my frustrations on you by making mountains out of molehills.

Someday I won't be pregnant. Someday I won't be fat and my back won't hurt. I won't be dizzy, and all the congestion will be cleared out of my head and lungs. Hopefully that will be soon. I'll be able to run, ride my bike, build a snow fort, plant a better garden, even learn how to skate. I'll be able to help rip this house apart and make it beautiful inside and out. And I want to do all those things with you and your brothers and sisters.

Meanwhile, will you please forgive me? I love you.

Love,

Mom

The son who wanted a wife

2008-01-26T00:12:00.000-05:00

And Samson went down to Timnath, and saw a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines. And he came up, and told his father and his mother, and said, I have seen a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines: now therefore get her for me to wife. And his father and his mother said unto him, Is there never a woman among the daughters of thy brethren, or among all my people, that thou goest to take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines? And Samson said to his father, Get her for me; for she pleaseth me well. -- Judges 14:1-3

I think this is one of the saddest stories in the Bible. Samson could have done so much for God, but he became a playboy instead. And for the record, I personally believe Samson was a little guy who looked like a wimp. If he'd have been one of those weightlifter-body builder types like he's pictured in children's Bible story books, people would not have been so curious about where his strength came from.

In relation to our current series on courtship and marriage, there are three points I want to make here.

1. Samson saw the woman he wanted and asked his father to get her for him. There was nothing wrong with him following this process. His father would probably not have objected if only Samson had picked an Israelite woman. So courtship, in the Bible, allowed for the man to pick his own bride rather than wait for the parents or matchmakers to choose for him. The parents still arranged everything, but the son was allowed to make his choice known.

2. Samson picked the wrong woman. He went to the world instead of to God's chosen people. Granted, this was all in the providence of God, and God planned to use this against the Philistines. But God's providence should never be an excuse for sin. Never, ever should a godly man pick a worldly woman and say that God will work it for good.

3. Samson failed to follow his father's advice. Manoah knew that the Philistine woman would not be good for his son. He cautioned Samson to look among God's people for a better bride. Samson would have none of them, and insisted on having the Philistine woman. He got his way. . .or did he? Read Judges 14 and 15 for yourself and find out.

Fast forward several thousand years to the Church age. What does the New Testament say about each of these three points?

1. Choosing your own bride: Sorry, but I could not find anything in the New Testament that specifically addresses whether there should be a matchmaker involved or not. The Lord speaks highly of marriage, however, and the epistles give plenty of principles to follow for choosing the right bride and how the marriage itself should function.

2. Choosing the right bride: What kind of woman should a man choose? First and foremost she should be a Christian. 2 Corinthians 6:14 makes this very clear: "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. . ." If you want to know how to tell if a woman is truly converted, read 1 John.

She should have the fruit of the spirit in practice. That fruit may not be fully developed, but it should be at least growing. Read Galatians chapter five in order to get verses 22-23 in context. Then do your own study of just exactly what each of those words means. Simply looking them up in a concordance will show you a lot, but you can get deeper.

She should be trained specifically for the role of wife and mother. Read Titus 2:4-5. Other passages to study: 1 Timothy 3:11 (specifically about deacon's wives, but can--should?--apply to any woman serving the church), 1 Peter 3:1-6, 1 Timothy 2:9-10.

3. Following godly advice, particularly that of godly parents: God gives older Christians insight that younger Christians would do well to follow. Titus 2, for example, lists things that Titus was to teach the younger men and things that older women were to teach younger women. Be teachable. Hebrews 13 speaks three times of those who have the rule over you. This can include parents, pastors, teachers, or even mentors. Verse 7 tells us to "Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation."

A godly older person can look unromantically at a prospective bride and see more clearly her faults as well as those points in her favour. He or she can help the young man determine whether those faults should be remedied before considering her for marriage, or if they are things that will work themselves out with time. A young man can ask the older women in the prospective bride's life what they think of her. But don't expect perfection. Very few (if any) younger women have achieved the high standard set in Proverbs 31:10-31. In fact, most older women are still working on that!

The man who wants a good wife will do some careful examining of the young women available. He will not rush off to marry the first pretty girl (or good cook!) he meets. He will seek the counsel of others with regard to his choice. He will also PRAY much about the matter. He will wait for God's choice for him, regardless of how long that may take. My own husband waited ten years. (He says I was worth it, and I guess Proverbs 18:22 agrees. But, oh, that I might be a better "good thing"!)

This was going to be a shorter post! Oh, well. Ruth is next. Meanwhile, here's a hint for the young women. Do you want to be chosen by a godly man? Do your own study of all the passages mentioned in this post. How do you measure up?

In the beginning

2008-01-25T08:44:00.000-05:00

I'll not dwell on Adam and Eve themselves, but rather this comment made by God at their wedding:

"Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh" (Genesis 2:24).

I find this verse interesting because it implies that the man does not leave home until he marries his wife. It is safe to assume that if the man has not left home yet, neither has the woman. This cannot be classified as "cultural" because God said this at the very beginning of time, to the very first people, before they had time to establish any kind of "culture".

So let's think about this. Should men and women leave home before they marry, just because now they are adults? If they leave, what should they be doing? If they stay, what should their role in the family be, and what should they be doing? And there is something very important about the leave and cleave idea that every parent must remember.

In our western society, children are considered legal adults when they turn 18. At that point, parents cannot legally force their children to stay home. So if the children are going to stay home it will have to be a voluntary act on their part. In either case, the children should, by then, be ready to function as adults. As adults, however, they should function differently depending on whether they are men or women. Since this series is about courtship, we are going to assume that the women are planning on getting married. We will save exhortations to single women for another post.

God has designed men to be the providers and protectors and women to be the guardians of the home. For a more in-depth study of this, I highly recommend the book Different by Design by John MacArthur. (I just did a google search for this and discovered several books by that title. It is important that you remember the author's name.) In preparing for marriage, men should be practicing his provider-protector role, and women should be practicing their guardian-of-the-home role.

Men will not usually have their life's vocation settled at age 18, but they should at least be working toward financial independence when they will no longer be dependent on their parents for anything financially. This is obviously necessary if he is going to be the sole provider for a wife and family. A man should not even consider marriage or courtship until he is financially independent.

Women preparing for marriage should be focusing on all that goes into making the home a refuge for her family. She should be practicing love and obedience for her future husband by loving and obeying her father. She should be practicing love for her future children by loving and helping to care for her younger siblings. (If she has no younger siblings, she should consider babysitting; helping young mothers in her church and neighbourhood; working with younger cousins, nieces, or nephews; etc.) She should be practicing for her role as keeper at home by learning all that goes into homemaking--things like cooking/baking, sewing, cleaning, gardening, budgeting household expenses, teaching (in preparation for homeschooling), using time wisely, and a myriad of other things. She should also work on making home a peaceful place, a true refuge from the storm of the world outside.

A man preparing for marriage will need some kind of employment. Usually he will need to work for someone else first, even if he plans to eventually own his own business. Unless his family has a business, he will of necessity "leave" home to work. In preparing for financial independence, he will begin paying room and board if he stays at home with his parents. He should get his own car and pay for his own insurance, repairs, gas, etc. He should be buying his own clothes and other necessities. He should also be saving something. Of course, he will also be giving regular freewill offerings to his church.

A woman preparing for marriage will find it easiest to practice her skills by staying home and functioning as part of the family unit.

And now a word for parents--and this will be hard for many parents, especially mothers, to take. Let your adult children be adults. Treat your adult sons as men of the house. Treat your adult daughters as women in their own right. If there are underage children in the home, they should be taught to honour and respect their adult siblings just the same as any other adult. They should give the same "Yes sir" (or whatever terminology your family uses) to adult siblings as they are expected to give to any other adult.

Mothers should not be telling their sons what to do anymore, leaving that to her husband. Sons will, of course, continue to honour and respect their mothers, but mothers need to step back from her role as "authority figure" and let her son be man enough to make his own choices and decisions. If a mother senses a problem, she should alert her husband. If she has no husband, or her husband is not godly, she should enlist the help of her pastor or other trusted man in her church.

Mothers and adult daughters seem to either have really fantastic relationships where everything runs as smoothly as well-oiled machinery, or they have stormy relationships with a constant tension between them. The daughter wants to be treated as an adult, the mother wants to be the boss. I think the best thing to do is divide the labour so that each has equal "authority" (for lack of a better word) over different areas. For instance, one might be in charge of all the laundry while the other prepares all the meals. One might decide what, when and how to set up and plant the garden while the other takes over all the major cleaning. This doesn't mean they can't help each other with their different jobs, but mothers should let their adult daughters make final decisions on some things.

This is all part of the leave and cleave idea I mentioned earlier. Parents must so train their children and themselves so that when the children become adults, the parents are ready to let go of them and let them live their own lives without expecting the children to follow their unsolicited advice. Even when children do ask advice, parents must remember that the children have the right as adults to reject that advice.

This is more than enough for one post, and I've only talked about "physical" things. I haven't even mentioned spiritual maturity. Maybe I'll get into that when we talk about Samson and Ruth.

Abraham, his servant, Isaac, and Rebekah

2008-01-24T08:30:00.000-05:00

Matchmaking was the norm in Bible times and is still practiced in much of the Middle East today. This is a cultural thing, perhaps not necessarily a Biblical mandate, so what I am writing in this post is my opinion, not a commandment.

The most beautiful matchmaking story in the Bible is found in Genesis 24. Take the time to read that if you are not familiar with the story, or even just to refresh your memory. I won't quote it all here since there are 67 verses in that chapter. Here is the basic gist of the story:

Abraham, the father, wants a bride for his son. Not just any bride, but a particular bride from his homeland. He insisted that the bride be brought to his son and was adamant that his son not go back to that land. Also, he did not want his son marrying into the Canaanite tribes around them. Since he did not want his son to go back to his homeland, Abraham sent his most trusted servant to choose the bride and bring her back.

This servant is not named but is commonly believed to be Eliezer (see Genesis 15:2). If so, this is the servant who would have inherited all of Abraham's possessions if Isaac had not been born. He had every reason, from a worldly standpoint, to be jealous of Isaac and to perhaps seek revenge by purposely getting him the wrong woman. Instead, he was a very godly servant, fully devoted to both Abraham and Isaac. He asked God's guidance in getting just the right bride for Isaac. His stipulation was that she be willing--even eager--to serve. (Hauling water for one thirsty camel is quite a chore, let alone for the dozen or more that Eliezer had with him.)

In this story, Isaac is not involved until the very end when he meets Rebekah, hears the servant's account, and takes Rebekah as his wife. The most significant point about Isaac is that he loved her.

Rebekah was the chosen bride. She was obviously God's choice for Isaac, and she knew it. But she was not dragged, kicking and screaming, from her home. She went willingly. Her family tried to detain her, and even left the choice up to her, perhaps expecting her to refuse. But she chose to obey God.

So what do I glean from this, to apply to my own family?

1. The part of Isaac not being allowed to make the choice for himself is a cultural thing. I'm not sure I would have the courage to do the choosing for my children. I would want my children to be more involved than Isaac was. However, I think Isaac could have had the right to reject Rebekah. It was not until after he heard the servant's story that he took Rebekah as his wife. He, too, must have recognized God's hand and accepted His choice.

2. Rebekah's parents did not force her to go to Isaac. She was given the opportunity to refuse. If my daughter has a problem with someone who I think would be a fine choice, she would be expected to speak up about it. Some men put on a good face for the parents, but the woman might know better. On the other hand, parents who are not godly (Rebekah's probably were not) may not be able to recognize God's choice. A godly woman will need the courage to follow God's clear direction even if her ungodly parents would rather she married someone else.

3. Isaac and Rebekah were married almost immediately. Both were ready. They were old enough, they were mature enough, they were fully prepared materially to start a home together. I do not agree with the current trend of boys and girls getting to know each other, sometimes far too intimately, before they are old enough and responsible enough to seriously consider marriage.

4. Rebekah did not make the first move. If a man is to be truly head of the home, the woman must not start out by making this important first decision for him. The man should be man enough to begin the process himself with God's guidance.

There are more principles I would like to state, but that will wait for another post when we look at the first marriage, Samson, and Ruth.

Courtship vs. dating

2008-01-23T16:26:00.000-05:00

courtship: A man's courting of a woman; seeking the affections of a woman (usually with the hope of marriage)
--WordWeb

I tried to look up the word "dating" so I could compare the two, but all I could come up with was a different definition for every website/person. There appear to be two levels to this.

First is dating, which can be anywhere from "casual" to "serious". The idea of dating is to go someplace to "have fun" together (eating, bowling, biking, visiting museums, that sort of thing) to see if you are "compatible" with the other person. At this stage, you can date any number of people you want. If you find that you are "compatible" with someone, then you can move on to the next stage.

The second stage is "relationship" or "going steady". These terms mean that you have committed yourself to the other person in a "more serious" way. This is when you start thinking "long-term". You are going to stop "seeing" other people and give yourself exclusively to the one person chosen.

There are two problems with the dating-relationship scenario. The first problem, acknowledged by almost everyone you might ask, is that it is hard to tell when you stop "dating" and start "having a relationship". The two people involved may have different opinions about this with one thinking they are still in the "casual dating" stage, and the other thinking they are "in a relationship". This confusion obviously can lead to many misunderstandings and hurt feelings.

The second problem, which almost nobody recognizes, is that there is no third stage called "marriage". Whatever "rules" there may be for either stage do not exclude bedding down together at any point, although most people seem to agree that this is not something you do until you've been on at least three "dates" together.

Courtship, on the other hand, has one goal in mind: marriage for life. But just as dating has many definitions in the worldly setting, so courtship has many definitions in the Christian setting. On one end of the spectrum, you have the matchmaker(s), sometimes hired by the parents, sometimes the parents themselves, deciding who should marry whom, and setting it all up before the "couple" even get to meet. The "couple" in this case may or may not have veto rights.

At the other end of the spectrum, the couple get together on their own, with or without outside encouragement, with the definite attitude that they are looking for a marriage partner, not a "relationship" or mere friendship. Once they have settled the fact that they will marry, they are expected to get parental permission at least from the woman's family.

All along the courtship spectrum there are varying degrees of family involvement. One thing is constant though: the woman NEVER takes the initiative. Whether there are matchmakers, parents, or the man himself doing the choosing, the woman always is waiting (hoping?) to be chosen.

As mother of four teenagers (including one who is about to leave his teen years), two "tweeners", two preschoolers, one toddler, and one still-in-development infant, I am very much interested in this important subject. My next post will attempt to define my personal thoughts about this.

Broken and Spilled Out

2008-01-16T08:17:00.000-05:00

This is for Jill, who is willing to be broken for Christ's sake.

Broken and Spilled Out
by Steve Green

One day a plain village woman
Driven by love for her Lord
Recklessly poured out a valuable essence
Disregarding the scorn
And once it was broken and spilled out
A fragrance filled all the room
Like a prisoner released from his shackles
Like a spirit set free from the tomb

Broken and spilled out
Just for love of you, Jesus
My most precious treasure
Lavished on thee
Broken and spilled out
And poured at your feet
In sweet abandon
Let me be spilled out
And used up for Thee

Lord you were God's precious treasure
His loved and his own perfect Son
Sent here to show me the love of the Father
Just for love it was done
And though you were perfect and holy
You gave up yourself willingly
You spared no expense for my pardon
You were used up and wasted for me

Broken and spilled out
Just for love of me Jesus
God's most precious treasure
Lavished on me
Broken and spilled out
And poured at my feet
In sweet abandon
Lord you were spilled out
And used up for me

Hello, goodbye

2008-01-15T17:00:00.000-05:00

Tom and I just got home from trying to comfort a young mother who lost her 6-month-old baby today.

The first thing this mother said to me when we got there was her hope that the Lord would use this to save her lost husband. She didn't want to lose her son, but was willing for God to use even that if that's what it would take to bring her husband to faith in Christ.

As we talked and grieved together, she told us of this song that was going through her mind, by Michael W. Smith:

Noah

Where's the navigator of your destiny?
Where is the dealer of this hand?
Who can explain life and its brevity
cause there is nothing here that I can understand

You and I have barely met
And I just dont want to let go of you yet

Noah, hello, goodbye
I will see you on the other side
Noah, sweet child of mine
I will see you on the other side

And so I hold your tiny hand in mine
For the hardest thing I've ever had to face
Heaven calls for you before it calls for me
When you get there, save me a place

A place where I can share your smile
And I can hold you for more than just a while

Noah, hello, goodbye
I will see you on the other side
Noah, sweet child of mine
I will see you on the other side

Will all who read this post please join us in prayer for this grieving family? Besides the child's father, there are a number of others on both sides of the family who are lost.

Mormonism exposed

2008-01-06T10:34:00.001-05:00

Since I am home sick today, Tom gave me this link about Mormonism to watch. He is currently taking the adult Sunday school class through a series on various cults, and found this in his research on Mormonism, otherwise known as the Church of Jesus Christ, Latter Day Saints.

If you know a Mormon, if you are considering the Mormon religion, if you are a practicing Mormon, or if you just want to know more about the Mormon faith--especially the dark side that the Mormon church does not want you to know about--please watch this film. You will need to set aside time for it; it is 1 hour and 22 minutes long. But it is very well worth the time. I'm adding it to the "Must See Videos" list in my sidebar.

Another Sunday sick at home

2008-01-06T08:07:00.000-05:00

Here I am, home again on a Sunday. I am getting really tired of us being sick so much. Nathanael missed two or three days of work this week. Ben has a sore throat and a runny nose. Timmy's nose is runny. I have this cough that just won't go away. Abby is better now, but she had a cold this week that kept her home from Wednesday night prayer meeting.

I am asking all of you to pray for us. We have never been sick so much as we have been since moving to this house. I suspect part of it is the mold problem we have, caused by condensation on the insides of the outside walls. We had hoped to start ripping the insides of this house apart last summer, replacing insulation, putting in vapor barriers, and putting up all new sheet rock, etc., inside. Two things stopped us. One was that we decided it was more urgent to get Nathanael and Josiah out of the boys' room, since there were six boys crammed into one room. So we remodelled the garage into two small bedrooms for them. They needed heat out there, meaning a small furnace was needed, and electricity, meaning some wiring.

The other thing that stopped us, and is still stopping us, is that our roof leaks. Is it coincidence that the roof leaks on the same side of the house where all the mold is? I don't know enough about houses to answer that. But we definitely need to repair the roof before we do anything inside.

I hope the rest of you have a good Lord's Day. May God bless the preaching in churches this morning.

Resolved

2008-01-01T09:12:00.000-05:00

I am resolved no longer to linger,
Charmed by the world's delight;
Things that are higher, things that are nobler--
These have allured my sight.

I am resolved, and who will go with me?
Come, friends, without delay;
Taught by the Bible, led by the Spirit,
We'll walk the heav'nly way.

--Palmer Hartsough, from "I Am Resolved", a hymn of commitment

Today is the first day of a new year. It is a time when many people claim a fresh start, either to break a bad habit or to establish a good habit. Most people break their New Year's resolutions within the first couple of days. But still, it's not necessarily a bad idea to think of the new year as a time to resolve to change some things in our lives. The key to making it actually work is to depend on Christ for the strength to follow through with the resolution, and to seek His grace to help us get back on track when we fail. Another help is to tell people our resolutions and to ask them to keep us accountable to them.

In my lifetime of almost 42 years, I have actually kept two New Year's resolutions. The first was probably about six years ago. I wasted a lot of time playing computer games. True, I did some of this with my children, but many hours were wasted that could have been more profitably used. So I resolved not to play a single computer game for an entire year. God helped me keep that resolution. Not once during that year did I play a computer game. When the year was over, the habit was broken. Now I might play one every now and then, but the hold those games had on me is gone.

The second resolution I kept was the next year, I think. I had never read the Bible through in one year, so I resolved to do that. I started in Genesis 1 on January 1st of that year, and finished the last chapter of Revelation on the last day of December. There were days when I missed reading for various reasons, but I was always able to make that up. It was such a blessing, and helped to establish a daily reading habit I had not had before.

Today I am making three resolutions. By God's grace, I hope to keep them.

1. Spiritual: I resolve to set aside one extra hour each week for prayer. This is in addition to what I already do as part of my daily devotions, times of public prayer with our church family, and times of family prayer. I'm not sure where I will get that hour, but I've got a couple of ideas.

2. Physical: I resolve not to eat any foods containing any refined sugar of any kind. I have been plagued with one cold after another for about 4 months. Since the end of September, I have spent half my Sundays at home instead of in church because of sickness. Same for Wednesday night prayer meetings. Since even a little sugar can lower your immune system for several hours, it makes sense to me to cut the sugar out if I want to be healthier. This will mean reading labels to watch for sucrose, glucose, and a host of other "-ose's", corn syrup, modified corn syrup, and a bunch of other words that simply mean "sugar". Even molasses is a refined sweetner, though many people think of it as a healthy alternative. This year I am sticking with honey and fruit.

3. Emotional: I resolve to -- sorry, but I don't have the courage to post this one at this point. I'll let you know more about it later. I will tell you that it has to do with motherhood.

May God bless you in the new year.

A letter from the past....

2007-12-25T17:02:00.000-05:00

My son Josiah is back to blogging, finally. His latest post contains an old letter, written toward the end of World War I. It is written by my great-uncle, who was stationed in New York City, to his younger sister, who became my grandmother. This letter contains great advice to young girls who are not yet married. Hopefully I've whetted your appetite enough for you to read the letter here.

In my opinion, my grandmother followed her brother's advice. I can't think of a better, more godly human being than my grandfather, who was my very bestest friend until he died when I was 14. His was an unconditional love that knew no bounds.

Quietness

2007-12-23T06:23:00.000-05:00

It is a quiet Sunday morning, and I am sitting at the computer munching toast with butter and honey, and drinking cinnamon stick tea. At my next midwife appointment I am to have a glucose test done. My glucose level is in the normal range, but since it's on the high end of normal, they want to run the test. Meanwhile, I found this article about cinnamon, hence the cinnamon stick tea.

I have had a quiet two-and-a-half hours, reading, praying, reviewing my Sunday school lesson, and doing some laundry. Laundry is not a normal Sunday morning activity, but I had to do diapers, underwear and socks, plus a skirt I needed for this morning. I did laundry yesterday, but ran out of time to get it finished.

There is this verse that keeps going through my head: "She riseth also while it is yet night...." (Proverbs 31:15). Since in this part of Canada the sun does not rise in winter until close to 8 a.m., it is technically possible to fulfill this verse and still sleep in a little during the winter. In the summer, though, the sun rises between 4 and 4:30 a.m., making things a little harder. I decided to get up at 4 a.m. this morning and see how far into the day I can go before I begin to fall asleep. I really want to get up early to have the quiet house to myself, and prepare my heart for the day ahead.

Now I need to go wake up whoever needs a shower and get them moving. And it's time for me to take the dog for a walk. No, not Sarah's puppy. She is too much for me to handle. I take Snickers, who is a little older. But even he tugs the leash wanting to run.

Have a good Sunday, everyone.

Run, trip, get up and GO

2007-12-20T08:10:00.000-05:00

Joseph, a regular contributor on my daughter's blog, has started a blog of his own. Joseph is the 15-year-old son of one of my very closest friends. I have known him since he was almost eight years old, when we first came to Canada to candidate at his church. (Well, actually Tom candidated, not me.)

It has been refreshing to me to watch Joseph grow spiritually over the years. He has a true heart for God and a burden for his own country, the people of Canada. Really, this is a dead place, and it wouldn't surprise me if, instead of sending missionaries in the past (Jonathan Goforth, Isobel Kuhn) we don't start receiving missionaries.

Please check out his blog. The titles for this post comes from the URL for his blog. I like it, because it really describes the Christian walk so well.

http://runtripgetupandgo.blogspot.com/

Family fun in the snow

2007-12-18T14:07:00.000-05:00

About 2-3 miles from our house is a string of islands in the St. Lawrence River. In the summer, these islands are filled with campers and swimmers, and you have to pay to drive in for your fun. But in winter you can cross-country ski, snow shoe, hike, sled, or whatever, without paying. The first island has a large hill that is a popular sliding hill. That's where we went this afternoon.

Thanks to the record snowstorm that came through over the weekend and caused us to cancel church services Sunday, there was a LOT of snow on the hill. Here are the few pictures I was able to get before the camera batteries died.

Coming up the hill. You can see the Canadian side of the river at the bottom of the hill.

Josiah with John and Timothy. We have a shortage of sleds (the tobaggon in the background did not work well, being unwaxed), so Josiah used an extra large trash bag instead. It worked really well, and the little boys really liked it.

Lizzie getting started on a GT at the top of the hill.

Lizzie is the small dot at the bottom of the hill. This picture helps you see just how steep/long the hill is.

Abby, getting started on a snow board.

I wanted to get more shots of them actually coming down the hill, especially some of the upsets at the bottom, but the batteries on the camera died. Lizzie and John came down together on a GT, but John, age 3, is not good at steering a GT. They hit a bump, flew into the air, and came down all tangled up in each other. Lizzie landed on top of John, but the only thing John was mad about was that he got snow on his face. At the same time, Timmy had upset in a tumble I did not witness, so I took both boys to the van to warm up. We drove around the islands for a little while, and my camera batteries revived for one last shot:

This is the St. Lawrence River, looking south to New York state. Barely visible is the part of the river that has not iced over yet. If the weather stays very cold (today was 18 degrees Fahrenheit), the river will probably freeze over.

Next year I want to invest in some cross-country skis.

When should a person get married?

2007-12-12T16:47:00.000-05:00

My friend Christy is getting married the end of this month. We all wish her well as she begins a new, somewhat scary, thrilling time of her life. Those of us who are married will surely remember the joyful frenzy of those last few days and weeks before the big day.

Do you married women remember all the comments and suggestions we all received by well-meaning individuals who questioned our decisions? In my case, I was asked these questions:

Are you sure you've known him long enough? (1st date to wedding day: 5 months, 7 days)
Isn't he too old for you? (he is 10 years, 5 months older)
Can't you have a church wedding and invite more people? (no, my parents were in the middle of packing for a major move, and we didn't really want to wait)
You should enjoy your engagement period, and not rush things.

My friend Christy went against the flow and decided to have a Friday evening wedding instead of a more "traditional" Saturday afternoon wedding. You go, Christy! I like your idea. Too much excitement on Saturday tires people out for Sunday, anyway. I got married on a Thursday. Thanksgiving Thursday, to be exact. My family enjoyed it, and it wasn't too stressful for my mother. For me, that was important.

From my mother

2007-12-05T17:11:00.000-05:00

I don't usually post twice in one day, but I just got this e-mail from my mother. These stories and more were part of my heritage, and a testimony of how God really does answer prayer. Here are my mother's own words:

When you were born I woke up from the ether and looked around. You were in a bassinet with several doctors and nurses all around you. Someone was holding up a little blue foot. A nurse noticed that I was looking and came over and told me that you had not breathed for several minutes. I remember very distinctly talking to my Heavenly Father and saying, "She is yours, if you want her with you, you can take her." Two very dear friends had prayed for me the night before when I was in labor and prayed again in the morning when you were being born. They did not even know that I was in the hospital. God did not take you.

When you were nearly 3, you had a very severe ear infection. The dr. said that it needed to be lanced but that I should take you home and bring you back in the morning. (the inflammation was very bad, I guess he wanted it to settle down a bit with an antibiotic.) That night you cried with the pain and I held you and talked with my Heavenly Father again. You finally quieted down and went to sleep. The next morning we took you to the doctor and as soon as he looked at your ear he said there was nothing wrong with it.

When you were about 4 you were sick and had a fever. I worked in Pediatrics at the time so I thought we should take you to the Emergency Room. They knew that I was a nurse and told me to take you home and watch you. You went sound asleep. After awhile you woke up and your temperature was down some and you were crying. When we asked you why you were crying, you said that Jesus was there and He left without you.

This led me to believe that you had something to do in this world that was in God's plan.

A little bit of this and that

2007-12-05T15:26:00.000-05:00

It's cold. Other people have cozy wood stoves, but we do not--yet. Lord willing, with some remodeling done this coming spring and summer, we will have a wood stove for next year. Our plans also include a closed-in front porch for taking off boots and hanging up winter gear. If code allows, we will feed the stove pipe out through the porch and up through the porch roof so there can be a tiny bit of heat out there. It will also be a good place to store wood, but maybe we'll work something else out for that.

We have had snow upon snow upon snow, with more snow coming over the weekend. I like the snow, but since we went to two vehicles, I'm driving in it more. It isn't always the most pleasant experience!

I have been posting a lot of old school books on ebay canada. Out of 40 items, there has been only one bid. If anybody knows a better place to sell home school materials, let me know. I still have about 30 items to put on.

We got a "new" refrigerator/freezer from friends who went Mennonite and are getting rid of most of their electrical appliances. We put our old fridge/freezer in the cellar for extra storage, and put the upright freezer in the Penny Grader for sale. At some point, I'd like to get a small chest freezer, but for now I think we are okay with what we have.

They also gave us their front-loading washer and a dryer. We are keeping our old washer and dryer to help us get laundry done faster. Maybe now we won't have to wash clothes every day. I'd like very much to go back to twice a week washings. And if we can get the wood stove in next year, I'll be able to set up racks to dry clothes overnight. If we do that, I will do one big load every evening or so, hang it to dry overnight, and fold it in the morning.

All this means that from yesterday afternoon till now, the kitchen has been a maze of appliances, with removed room doors lying in the girls' room and the cellar access torn up to make room for the stuff that went down there. Mostly we're back to normal, with just the big freezer to move out to the deck for now. There is more space in the kitchen with only one big appliance instead of two.

Has anybody ever tried to put eleven people in a two-bedroom, one-bath house? It's fun, cozy, crowded, noisy, cluttered, sometimes messy, and full. Putting the two oldest out in the garage this summer freed up some space. Still, there are four boys in what is supposed to be a family room, three girls in the larger bedroom, and Tom and me in the smaller bedroom. Where will the new baby go? Well, we asked ourselves that before Timothy was born, and found room for him. I'm sure Baby will fit himself in just fine.

We have decided to go ahead with our original plans to remodel this place for sale, and use the profits to buy a place with a bit more land. We will get a prefab as unfinished as possible, do as much of the work as we can ourselves, and gradually work toward having a small farm. I had actually given up on the farm idea, thinking that was not God's plan for us. But recently Tom, a confirmed city boy, has had different ideas. He wants us to grow more of our own food, including milk and meat, so as to have as natural a diet as possible, with as little food processing as possible.

Only the Lord knows what is ahead for us in the next few years. We are taking one day at a time, but with a goal in mind now that was not so solidified previously. There is more that can be said, but I don't have the words for it right now. Something to do with peace, contentment, trust, submission, and other similar words. I'll mull that over in my mind and see if I can verbalize it in a later post.

More about being home

2007-11-29T08:03:00.000-05:00

We are all home now. We brought Timmy home last night. At first, it was hard. He didn't even want his brothers and sisters to come near him. But then Sarah took him away from clinging to me and made friends with him again. After that he was okay.

They think now that he might have asthma, but there has to be three episodes of wheeze before he's officially diagnosed. He's on a puffer for the first 24 hours, then as needed. He is supposed to have it with him (like in the diaper bag) wherever he goes, just in case. Since it was a cold that set him off this time, we are supposed to give him the puffer every four hours during a cold.

It is cold and wet and rainy. We are going to work inside the house today, attacking dust, mold and clutter, and increasing the air flow. Tom put in another cold air return for the furnace Tuesday, and already the air flow is better. Saturday, while Timmy was in the hospital the first day, Tom cleaned the boys' room (the four younger ones share a room). He discovered that Ben had been collecting, in boxes, birds' nests, bird seed, and garden soil! He cleared all that out, washed walls and the floor, raised the dressers up on 2X4s, washed bedding, and bought new pillows for John and Timothy. He said there was mold in there, but since that's the room with the new cold air return, he's hoping that will fix the moisture problem.

I will be so glad when we can start remodeling the inside of this house. Besides the cold air return, we need better insulation and moisture barriers. It is the outside walls in three or four rooms that are getting wet and moldy.

I've got to get going. We all slept in this morning, but now Timmy needs his last dose of steroid medicine and a puffer, John needs his antibiotic and steroid doses, and we all need breakfast.

Thanks for all the prayers during the last week.

Home

2007-11-28T20:00:00.000-05:00

It is nice to be home, with no one in the hospital. It is nice to be able to sleep in my own bed. It is nice to have other people for Timmy to cling to. It is nice to have friends who go beyond the call of duty in time of need. It is nice to be done sharing four days of isolation with a toddler.

And I never thought I'd say this, but it's nice to have something to eat other than Pizza Pizza or Mr. Sub from a hospital cafeteria (and nice not to have to pay their wretchedly high prices).

What is NOT nice is that maybe it was asthma all along, and now my toddler has to carry a puffer with him everywhere he goes. Doctor's orders.

John, Timothy and two hospitals (this is a loooong post)

2007-11-26T23:03:00.000-05:00

Thursday Timmy started coughing. Friday, John started coughing, and Timmy started wheezing. So we said no Bible Club for them Friday night. They're too young anyway, but I'm one of the drivers. While we were discussing how we would work the transportation, the Bible Club leaders called and canceled for this week.

Friday night Timmy got worse. He was up in the night crying, coughing, wheezing. Tom moved to the couch to give Timmy bed space with me. I basically got very little sleep since when Timmy was awake he was coughing and very restless. When he was asleep, he was coughing and wheezing. A mother can't sleep when her baby is so sick.

Saturday morning we prepared to take Timmy to emergency. We discussed taking John, too, but decided to wait since he wasn't that bad. On the way to emergency we noticed that the walk-in clinic was open so we decided to stop there first. They ended up sending us to emergency anyway, so off we went.

Saturday noon Timmy was admitted to the hospital with either severe asthma or bronchiolitis. They wanted to say asthma, but since there is no family history of asthma, they settled on bronchiolitis. Either way, it got worse as the day wore on till by midnight Timmy was really gasping for air. They were only giving oxygen with a medicated mist about every 2 to 4 hours, and in between Timmy was mostly awake, struggling to breathe. They finally put him under an oxygen tent, but even that did not help. By 4 a.m. I was so sleep-deprived I couldn't think straight, so they sent me to an empty room to sleep.

While I was sleeping they called the doctor, who ordered oxygen all the time. They put a mask on him, but after I woke up around 7-ish they switched to using an oxygen tube with nasal prongs. The problem was that they only had newborn sized prongs, which were way too small, or adult sized, which were way too big. They put the newborn size on him, but it was not a good fit. He ended up with a mask on top of the prongs, which I thought ridiculous, but they thought he would get more oxygen that way.

Sunday morning, the doctor came, first thing, to see him. He decided to send Timmy to CHEO (Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario) in Ottawa. CHEO is a fantastic place, much better equipped and staffed than our local hospital, so I was actually relieved to hear this news. (The nurses expected me to be devastated.) I called Tom at home to tell him the news. He was busy getting children out the door to go to church, so he said it wouldn't take long to get there, since they were just about to leave anyway.

Tom dropped some children off at church (friends were coming to pick up the rest--we go everywhere in two vehicles now, and none of the children are licensed yet). He was in the church parking lot when he saw the orange helicopter-ambulance fly overhead. He got to the hospital just in time to greet the EMTs coming in with their stretcher to take Timothy. It took them about half an hour for them to get everything settled. During that time, the nurses and I convinced Tom to let someone else lead services and preach. We really did not have to do much convincing; he was more than ready to go along with the idea.

After they took Timothy away, Tom and I came back to the house to pick up some things, switch vehicles, and send a few urgent e-mails. (As we were driving out of Cornwall, we saw the helicopter in the air headed for CHEO. Tom wished for a camera.) We also had to check on the turkey someone gave us, which was in the oven cooking for Sunday dinner. As we pulled up, Nathanael came out of the garage, wondering why he wasn't taken to church. In the confusion, he had been left behind! Tom told him to stay home, mind the turkey and answer the phone. We didn't have time to take him back to church.

We stopped for gas and to put air in the tires, so I took the time to call Sarah at church to explain what was happening, and to make suggestions for them for the afternoon. Sarah reported that John had started wheezing. Well, what to do now? We were close enough still that we decided to go back to the church to check John, and see how bad he was. We decided that Tom would take me to Ottawa, see us settled in, then come back to take John in to Cornwall emergency. He was wheezing, but not nearly as bad as Timmy. We left his health card with Sarah, with instructions for her and Nathanael to take John to emergency themselves if they thought he needed to go. One of the women in the church was asked to help them make that decision and give them transportation if needed.

Thankfully, they were able to wait for Tom to get back. So while Tom was in Cornwall with John, I prepared to spend my third sleepless night with Timothy at CHEO. As I said, this place is fantastic. Timothy was given nasal prongs that fit, but when he started pulling at them they switched back to the mask. He hated the prongs and loved the mask. He seemed to know that it was helping him breathe, so whenever it slipped out of place he put it right back again.

By the time the night staff came on at 7:30, Timothy was already improving. He even ate some supper, the first meal he'd eaten since Friday night. Although he did much better through the night at CHEO than in Cornwall, neither of us slept much. He clung to me, practically crawling up and over my shoulders in his effort to get away from all these strange people who kept poking needles into him, prodding him with stethoscopes and staring at him through strange face masks. I tried to explain to him that these people were friends who wanted to help him get better, but a 20-month-old baby can't fathom "friends" poking him and taking his blood away.

He was on ventilation with medicated mist for about ten minutes every hour all through the night, with regular oxygen in between. He and I both tried to sleep in between mistings, but there was a problem. He would only sleep in my arms while I rocked him, and I could only sleep on the cot they set up for me.

Meanwhile, John was admitted in Cornwall. Tom got to sleep on a bed in John's room, only waking for mistings every two hours. The nurses kept doing double takes, seeing Tom back again so soon. ("Newton? Didn't we just send you to CHEO?" "No, that was Timothy. This is John.")

Monday morning, Timothy had me stuck. If I went out of his sight, he cried. Too much crying made his lungs tighten up, so I tried not to make him cry. The problem was, I needed sleep desperately. Friends who live in Ottawa had offered to let me sleep at their house, but I couldn't leave the room long enough to use the phone. Finally someone brought Timothy some toys. One of the nurses was able to play with him while I left to call the Tessiers. Luc volunteered to take the day off work to stay with Timmy (he said his boss owed him tons of time) while Sylvia took me home, fed me and put me to bed.

Actually, their 4-and-a-half-year-old daughter put me to bed in her room. I slept for about three hours, then called home to check on John. By that time he had been discharged and Tom had had time to take a short nap. He came up to Ottawa then. Timothy kept improving, keeping himself out of the ICU one doctor had threatened him with.

He has a lot of energy, but is still tied down with a mass of cords, wires and tubes. They had taped his IV needle VERY securely so that he couldn't pull it out, but he still managed to pull the connection apart twice, splattering blood everywhere. He gleefully threw all his toys out of his crib, and Tom put the rails up just before he could throw himself out. Then he stood up and paced his crib, tromping on cords and wires, and setting his monitors to beeping. We sat him down, and he set to work trying to pull the sticky pad lung monitors off his chest.

I helped Tom decide that I was the one who needed sleep the most, even though he wanted to go home and make sure John went through the night okay. We decided that I would stay at the Tessiers for the night, but first I called home to check on everyone. Sarah and Josiah reported that John refused to take one of his meds, and only took the other over strong protest. The meds are given only every twelve hours, so I decided to come home for the night, make sure John took his meds in the morning, and come back to CHEO so that Tom could come home, sleep, and make sure John took his meds.

The Tessiers brought me home since I was too sleep-deprived to drive that far (over an hour one way) in the dark and in the rain that turned to snow and then back to rain again. So here I am at home. It is late, but I could not settle to sleep right away. I've been home for about three hours, heard all the news, told all my news, reassured the children, and put an already asleep John in my bed for the night. Tomorrow after breakfast I will go back to CHEO with our van.

I don't know when they will let Timmy come home. They say he has to stay until he can go without the oxygen mask. Right now he's off it when he's awake, but has to have it in his sleep. They planned to stretch the mistings to every two hours overnight, but they don't want to push it. I would guess that he won't be home before Wednesday. I will find out tomorrow.

Now I think I can sleep. Don't anybody wake me up in the morning. I'll get up when I'm ready to get up.

21 years

2007-11-22T22:24:00.000-05:00

Today is our 21st anniversary. We have been so blessed. We have nine healthy children and the tenth doing fine as he gets ready to enter the world next spring. There has never been anything so majorly wrong that the Lord has not helped us overcome by His grace. Our marriage has not exactly been total bliss (what marriage is?) but it has been wonderful. We look forward to however many more years God gives us.

We got such a snowstorm that Tom postponed our night away until next week. But we did go out to breakfast and out to supper. When we got home from supper out, the children surprised us with an ice cream anniversary cake from Dairy Queen!

Since we don't do anything for Christmas anymore, we have started a new family tradition. The week of our anniversary (always the week of American Thanksgiving) we have a family holiday with no school. Hopefully as the years go by and the children begin having families of their own, they will be able to come home for a family reunion every year or so. They may not all be able to come every year, but it will still be a special time. Of course, we will need a bigger house by then (perhaps a small hotel?) since this is the wrong time of year for camping the children out in tents.

Anyway, the children are enjoying their week off from school. The snowstorm couldn't have come at a better time. They had a great time in the snow. I took Timmy out for a little while, but he couldn't walk very well in it. He'd go a few steps, fall on his face, say, "Up, up!" I'd help him up, and he'd walk a few steps, fall on his face, etc., over and over. Finally I got him to the neighbour's driveway where he could walk better. Then he said, "Bite, bite!" plunked himself down on his face and started eating the snow! I carried him over to where the others were building a fort. Then his boots kept coming off, so I took him back inside.

Elizabeth needed boots, so we got her some new ones while we were in town for breakfast. Later, we spent half an hour (no exaggeration) trying to unzip her coat (which was a bit too small anyway). So we got her a practically brand new coat at Value Village for just under $10. It's even purple, to match her snow pants. (The old one was red.)

The children and I spent most of the afternoon trying to rearrange the living room to make room for a space for boots and a rack for hanging up coats/mitts/snow pants. We have a small living room, and too much furniture, so it was a tricky thing to arrange it all. I had to take out the coffee table and my sewing table to make the rest fit.

This has been a most unique anniversary! But fun. I got boots today, too. Now I need to figure out what I can wear in the snow. Pajama pants under a dress wasn't really warm enough. The neighbours (not to mention my children) would probably go into shock if I put snow pants on. Last year Chelsea from next door was shocked to find that I would wear sweat pants under my dress. I can just imagine what she'd say about snow pants without a dress!

I am going to put the turkey in the oven to slow-roast overnight. We will have American Thanksgiving dinner a day late. This year sickness made us miss our annual Canadian Thanksgiving in October, but normally we have two Thanksgiving dinners every year. Just one of the side benefits of being U.S. citizens in a different country!

Sunday morning notes--November 18, 2007

2007-11-18T14:33:00.000-05:00

I had the most amazing experience in Sunday school today.

I was raised in church and Sunday school. I have taught Sunday school off and on since I was 15. I love teaching, but sometimes it gets a little old because I teach children who have been in church since they were babies. They've heard all the stories so many times they could probably teach the lesson themselves. Even the application is old to them.

Today was different. Today we had a visitor, an 8-year-old girl who had never been in Sunday school before, ever. Our lesson was on creation, and the all-powerful God Who created everything. This was all new to her. She was astounded, incredulous, awed, by the whole idea. While the other three girls in my class were maybe a little bored, had all the answers, and tried to teach the lesson themselves, this girl asked questions, said things like "Cool!!!" and asked, over and over, "But HOW did God do that?" "You mean He just said it, and it was there?" "So God is sort of like magic?"

Then, right toward the end, when I didn't have any more time left, the subject of sin came up, and how sin keeps us from heaven. We described what sin is, and listed some examples (disobedience, lying, stealing, etc.). This girl asked, "But what if you only do that ONCE?"

Oh, for more time! At that point I wished I could have dismissed the others so I could talk to her alone. Instead, I told her that next week's lesson will be about Adam and Eve and how sin came into the world. We would talk more about sin and salvation then. I gave her a Bible and a Sunday school assignment paper, showed her where to read for her assignment, and told her how much we'd like to have her come back. I also invited her to Bible Club Friday nights, and she sounded excited about that.

Later, I talked to her father. He is the kind of parent that believes there should come a time in every child's life when she is exposed to religion, and then allowed to make her own choice about it. We had an "interesting" conversation that really didn't go anywhere. But I encouraged him to keep bringing his daughter back, that we'd love to have them come again, and told him about Bible Club. He said he hoped to come back.

Please pray for this family. A brother was mentioned during Sunday school, but no word was said about a mother. The father said he was raised by parents and a grandmother who went to church and were "very religious." I do not know what he meant by that. Pray that the father will take seriously his responsibility to train his daughter in true religion. Also pray that his daughter will put pressure on him to bring her back.

While you in the USA are praying, pray for cold, dead, Canada which cannot tolerate on-fire, living followers of Christ. This little girl is the product of a system that did away with God a long time ago. There are so many more children like her all over our city and nation. Bible Clubs and Sunday schools are reaching a few, but we need the power of God upon us.

Is it genetic?

2007-11-17T11:00:00.000-05:00

I read somewhere recently that we may be genetically inclined toward one occupation or another. When studying my family tree I discovered that the Bowser line (from which I come) includes mostly farmers and medical people (doctors, nurses, medics, etc.)

For instance, my great-great-grandmother raised sheep. She sheared and spun the wool and wove it into cloth, which she then used to make a suit for her son. That son wore his new suit to college, became one of the best doctors in the county, and was my great-grandfather. His granddaughter (my mother) was a nurse. My cousin also went into nursing. Armstrong County, Pennsylvania (where I grew up) is full of Bowser farms.

My main dream all my life has been to have a family farm. I don't want to go big or anything, but I would like to have a little farm with chickens, cows, a pig or two, and sheep. And some Morgan horses. I would like to grow or raise 85-90 per cent of our food and have plenty to share with others. My favorite set of books was (is) the Little House series. I always wished I was Laura. (Now I think more like Ma. And after wearing out countless paperback sets, I finally spent $100 to get the set in hardback, which my children now read with gusto.)

My daughter wants to go into the medical field. She has also always liked animals and wants to raise goats. Maybe there is something to that genetic disposition thing.

Another interesting fact I discovered during genealogical research: I come from a LOOOOONG line of Baptists, beginning with Matthias Bausser, the first of the Bowsers (as the name became) to come to America. He was a "dunkard" who came from Germany, possibly Switzerland before that, where dunkards were being persecuted for their practice of "dunking" (immersing) as their preferred method of baptism.

Proverbs 31:10

2007-11-13T07:08:00.000-05:00

My friend Christy has asked me to describe how she can prepare herself for that great change from singleness to married woman. I have thought a lot about this, trying to think what wonderful words of advice I might have. After all, I have been married 21 years this month--I ought to know something, right?

Actually, I often think I am just learning. I look back on my marriage and see so much failure that could have been avoided had I prepared myself spiritually, mentally, emotionally, even physically instead of thinking that there would not be much difference between my life as a single person and my life as a married woman.

Lately I have been meditating on the woman described in Proverbs 31:10-31 in an attempt to make my life more like hers. So I thought I'd do a series on her.

Proverbs 31:10 -- "Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies."

I want to focus on the word virtuous for this post. Literally, in the Hebrew, this means a woman of strength. The word translated virtuous in this verse as also been translated might, power, strength, valiant. It has been used in a military sense as army, great forces, host, company. So we are talking about one strong woman here.

I like what Matthew Henry has to say about this, so I am going to quote him here:

[She is]...a woman of strength..., though the weaker vessel, yet made strong by wisdom and grace, and the fear of God....A virtuous woman is a woman of spirit, who has the command of her own spirit and knows how to manage other people's, one that is pious and industrious, and a help meet for a man....A virtuous woman is a woman of resolution, who, having espoused good principles, is firm and steady to them, and will not be frightened with winds and clouds from any part of her duty....

The first thing a woman needs if she would be a godly wife, then, is strength of character. On a related note, we women are sometimes subject to mood swings. Biblically, those mood swings ought to be subject to us. This is part of having the command of our own spirits. You might find it helpful to read this post about mood swings.

"It is appointed -- a day for you to die"

2007-11-10T12:47:00.000-05:00

Last Sunday morning at a dangerous intersection near Dallas, Texas, 19-year-old Michael Billings went home to be with his Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. I never heard of Michael Billings until after his death, but I sit here blinded by tears as I try to write this. Why would God choose to take this young man, who showed so much promise as a soldier of Christ? Maybe one reason is so those young men and women who are more mediocre in their faith can be spurred on to take up Michael's torch. And perhaps those of us who are older will also be spurred by his testimony. I know this is the fourth thing this week that has affected me to the point of tears and made me question my own spirituality, or lack thereof.

To learn more about Michael Billings, please follow this link. Please take the time also to listen to the short sermon he preached a couple of years ago at the age of 17. The title of this post comes from that sermon.

Colds, colds, colds!

2007-11-04T19:55:00.000-05:00

I stayed home today with Ben, John and Timothy. (Nathanael stayed home, too, but since he lives in the garage now, we didn't see much of him.) All of us are coughing. In fact, there were enough people in our church who were not feeling well that we canceled the evening service tonight. We have been watching the Day of Discovery documentary on the life of Eric Liddell instead.

This morning I asked Ben to bring the little boys into the living room so we could keep an eye on them while we listened to Tom's Sunday morning message from last week (which I missed because I was home with a cold). As we were getting things set up, the following exchange took place between 3-year-old John and me.

"Come and sit on the rocking chair; we're going to listen to Daddy preach."

"Daddy?"

"Yes."

"Our daddy?"

"Yes, our daddy."

"Our real daddy?"

"Yes, our real daddy?"

"Our real daddy who lives in this house?"

By this time I am laughing as I answer, "Yes, our real daddy who lives in this house."

You can comment now

2007-10-31T16:49:00.000-04:00

No matter who you are. But if you prove yourself to be a troll migrating from a certain someone's blog, I am going to find out how to block you! But I took off the "no anonymous comments" stipulation.

This is for Christy

2007-10-31T16:35:00.000-04:00

And I think some of the rest of you will be able to relate...

Even the best of changes can be confusing.

After Tom and I got married I moved with him from Pennsylvania to Georgia. Three days after the wedding I was in a new church for the first time meeting all sorts of new people. I don't know how many people came up to me that morning, introducing themselves, and eager to meet "Tom's new wife." I had to constantly remember that I was Cathy Newton now, not Cathy Smith.

At one point, someone introduced herself and my mind went completely blank. I looked up at Tom and asked, "What's my name?"

In the weeks to follow, I sure did learn my name, and no forgetting it. The paperwork seemed endless as I stood in line to change my name on all sorts of documents including driver's license and social security card. Later, though, I was thankful I did not own a house, a car, or any other major possession. The paper work involved in changing all those documents (mortgages, licenses, insurance, utilities, etc.) is the reason given for why the province of Quebec made it illegal for a woman to take her husband's name upon marriage.

hockey sticks

2007-10-29T20:01:00.000-04:00

I really wish they'd make it easier for the uninformed to buy hockey sticks for their children. Tom and I needed four sticks: one lefty, three for right-handers. We bought one stick that said "L", two sticks that said "R", and one stick that was neither. We brought them home. The children looked them over and told us that the one marked "L" was for right-handers, and the two marked "R" were for lefties.

!!!!!!!!!

Now we have to take one back and exchange it. Oh, well. I'll have to try to remember next time that "L" stands for "Right" no matter what they taught me years ago in phonics.

Changes and additions

2007-10-28T20:17:00.001-04:00

"My Favourite Blogs" in my sidebar has been changed. It is now titled "Important People in My Life." These people are important to me, not because they post regularly (a few seem to have given up blogging). They are not important because I have met them (a couple of them I have never met, and two of them I haven't seen in years). They are important because they are part of my greater family--the family of God--and I have grown to love them either through real life or through their blogs. Because they are important people, I have listed their names rather than their blog names. Go visit them to find the blog names you might be accustomed to seeing.

Here are the additions:

Christy: I had her linked before, but she, for some inexplicable reason, deleted that blog. Now she has started a new blog, in which we learn that she is looking forward to one of life's greatest events: her own wedding!!! Congratulations, Christy, and I really hope you keep this blog!

Melissa: I met Melissa through an internet forum she started, about homesteading. About four years ago, we got to meet her and her family in person at their home in southeast Ohio. She is a dear friend, and we hit it off right away. Melissa is the most frugal person I have ever enjoyed knowing. She manages to make her home and family look like they should grace the covers of those really nice country homes magazines while living on a shoestring budget. They have a gorgeous house on a gorgeous piece of property. It is so beautiful that they were once offered enough money to retire on if they sold it. (I sincerely doubt they will ever sell.) I believe they were offered close to ten times what they had put into it up to that point.

If I stopped talking about Melissa at that point, I would fail to tell you this important fact: People, not things, are what Melissa is all about. When you go to her house, you feel like you are home. You notice the clean, clutter-free house, but you aren't afraid to sit down in it. They want you there, and they take time to make you feel special. Melissa loves her children's friends, and likes having them over, even to the point of having 25 girls for a sleepover. And all those kids love her, because they know they matter to her.

I want to be hospitable like that, but I sadly fail too often.

(Melissa is a down-to-earth, old-fashioned sort of person, and I was not really surprised to learn that she cooks on a wood stove because she wants to.)

Sarah: My dear, zany daughter has started blogging. I love her more than she knows, and need to show her that more. She has a heart for God, and, though I look forward to seeing what God does with her future, I am really enjoying what God is doing in and through her now. If we were teens at the same time, I would really have admired her, but she would have be extremely annoyed at me. She is not the "daughter just like me" that my mother wished on me. (I hope I never get one of those!)

Read and enjoy, and comment if you like.

Camping in the Adirondacks

2007-10-28T18:13:00.001-04:00

This is Timothy in one of his favourite spots at our campsite. We had neglected to bring lawn chairs, so when I saw four log sections this size in the woods, I asked the boys to roll them up to our site. We used one as a chopping block for cutting firewood and the other three we used as chairs. This one, however, had started to rot. One of the boys knocked out the center, and before long, Timothy had claimed it as his spot.

I learned some lessons while camping.

Lesson #1: Never go canoeing on a windy day when you have a light-weight child sitting in the front. This is especially important for people like me who are inexperienced with canoeing. Abby and I called the Lord's remembrance to the storm on the sea of Galilee and thanked Him sincerely when He brought us safely to shore, even though it was the opposite shore and we had quite a hike through the woods to get back to our campsite.

Lesson #2: A broken stroller with the wheels cut off does NOT make a good baby carrier when you want to back pack a toddler up a mountain. It is better to remember to bring the carrier designed for this purpose which we accidentally left at home. The experience that taught us this lesson is indescribable. Suffice it to say that one of the most important things you need for something like this is a shoulder strap for the toddler, something most strollers lack. It is also best to back pack a toddler in an area where you do NOT have to climb practically straight up a rocky slope where the only way to know where the trail is, is to search diligently for the trail markers fastened to the trees--little plastic yellow disks in this case.

Lesson #3: This lesson is very much related to Lesson #2, and was learned at the same time. NEVER trust the trail guides when they describe a certain trail as "easy."

Lesson #4: Learned by our four older, hardier children: ALWAYS trust the trail guides when they describe a certain trail as "difficult."

Lesson #5: Ducks, mice, squirrels and chipmunks which live at campsites are not just tame. They are pushy, and will not cease to demand their fair share of your food.

Lesson #6: Tent camping in northern mountains in late September/early October might not be the best idea, especially if some people forget their long sleeved shirts and/or jackets. In fact, coats would be even better. Also thick pajamas, long underwear and extra blankets. Three weeks later, we still have not fully recovered from colds caught during vacation.

Lesson #7: This is by far the most important lesson of all, and will bring a smile to any Christian who has learned to trust God for the teeniest of details in their lives. The lesson is, DELIGHT to trust God for the teeniest details of even the most insignificant events of your life, including your vacation.

We left our driveway at 3:00 p.m. on the Monday we started our vacation. This was about 4 hours later than we had intended, considering which campsite we had chosen. By leaving so late we guaranteed that it would be pitch black dark before we got to the Adirondacks, and our chosen campsite was another 2 hours farther south. Because it was dark, and because we were on a winding twisting mountain road, and because the campsite signs were not lighted, we chose the first site still open this late in the season. It providenced to be Eighth Lake Campground, six miles from the little touristy town of Inlet.

We pulled into the gate, looked at a campsite map, and chose our site. We drove almost half a mile before we got there, only to find that it providenced to be already occupied. So we chose the site just across the road and settled in.

Next morning after breakfast, we did what we always do every morning. We had family devotions. After that, we spent the day exploring and deciding what food we needed for the next few days. Tom did the shopping while the rest of us walked around, played in the woods, gathered dead wood for the fire, and otherwise entertained ourselves in the great outdoors.

The day after that, Elijah came back from fishing to tell of a family he had met. It seems that the occupants of our first choice in campsites had been watching us. They were friends of the family Elijah met and had this to say of us: "They have devotions every morning, and the children are quiet by 8:15 every night. I bet they're Christian home schoolers." The family Elijah met were also Christian home schoolers. I was rather sobered by this reminder that the world is watching, and wants to know if we Christians, home schoolers or not, really are different.

One day we decided to go hiking. We chose our trails, Tom and I taking the younger ones on an "easy" hike, and Josiah taking the older ones on a difficult hike. We had to drive to the trail heads, so we loaded up the van and the car and started out. I was waiting for Sarah to get in the front seat of the van when I noticed the drawer under her seat open. A metal hanger providenced to be sticking out of the drawer. Not wanting to be bothered putting the hanger away in a suitcase, I shoved the drawer shut, hanger and all.

We drove out, with me in the lead (since I had the map). Suddenly I providenced to think of Ben's feet. Ben spends as much of the summer as possible either barefoot or in rubber boots. Most of the time I don't care, but this time I didn't think either choice would be appropriate for mountain climbing. Ben was not in the van, so I stopped and radioed Tom, asking what Ben had on his feet. He glanced around, saw that Ben was not with him, and said, "I don't know, why don't you ask him?" Thus we discovered that Ben was not with either of us. He was back in the woods chopping firewood, and we almost left him behind.

With Ben in the van (with footwear appropriate for hiking), we started out again. We were halfway there when I noticed that Tom was no longer behind us. I pulled over to wait for him, but after five minutes I decided to turn around. We found him ready to pull over with car trouble. We both pulled into a parking area nearby, and the first thing Tom wanted to know was, did I have a metal hanger! He needed one to temporarily wire up the muffler that was coming down.

The week went on, and we began to discuss where we might attend church on Sunday. Eighth Lake was too far north for us to attend the church we had originally planned to attend, where a friend of ours is pastor. Tom said the only churches he saw in Inlet were a Catholic church and a Presbyterian church. (Later we found out that the Presbyterian church had a lesbian pastor.) We considered driving the distance to our friend's church, but really didn't like that idea.

On Friday morning we gathered around the fire as usual for family devotions. While discussing the parable of the sower, one of the camp workers drove up. He got out and walked up to us. Seeing what we were doing (and having noticed that we did so every morning), he asked us if we were Christians. Then he invited us to his church Sunday! There really was a Baptist church in Inlet, we just hadn't noticed because it was on a side street.

Still, the name Baptist does not necessarily mean it's a Bible-believing church preaching sound doctrine. We continued to think this over. Finally, though, we decided to take the man up on his offer and went.

In between Sunday school and the morning service, the pastor's wife came to greet me. In conversation with her I discovered that they were new to New York state, having recently moved from Texas! My mind went back eight years to the time we moved from Texas to try to start a church in New York state. We both had similar experiences of culture shock coming from warm, friendly Texas to cold, not so friendly New York state.

She told me that every Sunday she always has someone over for dinner, but for some reason she hadn't gotten around to inviting anyone the Sunday we were there. She said that all week she wanted to invite someone, but somehow just never did. So she asked us. This was God's providence to both our families. It encouraged us to know that there is one more pastor in New York preaching sound doctrine, and I hope we were an encouragement to them. They are interested in the prayer meetings Tom has with other pastors in New York, and in the Bible conferences we either have or attend. I really look forward to seeing more of them.

That night after the evening service, the pastor's wife said to me, "You can be glad you didn't go to Nick's Lake Campground." She went on to describe a very violent domestic dispute that had occurred there that week, involving police and ambulance. A friend of theirs was on the ambulance team, and had told them about it.

Nick's Lake is the campground we would have gone to, if we hadn't left home so late.

Do you delight in the providence of God working out all the little details of your life, not just the ones you think are major and important? If you haven't learned to look for this kind of providence in your life, I encourage you to start. You will laugh with delight and joy, and learn to really rest in His care.

My daughter has a warped sense of humor

2007-10-24T21:27:00.000-04:00

Actually, it's more likely that she's just never been a mother.

We were sitting in prayer meeting. I was in the back row with John on one side and Timothy on the other. Tom was in his customary place behind the podium expounding on Acts 15:36-41. You know, the passage about the dissension between Paul and Barnabas over John Mark. Tom asked, "What kind of person are you? Are you a quitter?" I have to admit to feeling more like a quitter tonight.

John and Timothy are 3 years and 19 months, respectively. They are in training, learning to sit still. I have been working with them on folding their hands and being quiet. Do you know how much mischief a little boy can get into and still keep his hands folded? Timothy managed to pull on the collar of Elizabeth's dress and unsnap the legs of his pants and untie his shoes. John kept taking off his socks and poking Sarah in the back (Sarah was sitting in front of him). I kept turning back and forth between the two of them, trying to instruct them in a better way.

Just when I felt I couldn't handle this anymore I turned back to deal with John one more time. As I turned his way, my nose told me, and my eyes confirmed it. After a whole week of being dry, John was now wet. On the padded seat of a church chair. Timothy and I escorted John to the nursery where we found a spare pair of pants in the diaper bag.

I stayed in the nursery with the boys, seating them on chairs so they could continue learning to sit still while I continued to hear about quitters and how to deal with them over the speaker. At that point, I was beginning to feel like Paul, and thought how nice it would be if a Barnabas would come along and take over with my two little boys. Not seriously, but I am tired.

When we divided according to gender for prayer time, Tom came to take John with him. Since I was one of only two adult females there tonight, and since there were five non-adult females including two or three youngsters in need of parental supervision, Tom urged me to go join them. Sarah came to second that urging just as I was getting up to come.

I confess I really wasn't much inclined to pray tonight, but I knew prayer was exactly what I needed. Since Timothy had just about had it with this sitting still business, I took my turn as soon as I could. I briefly considered asking Sarah to take Timothy out, but then I decided to take him out myself. As I was leaving the auditorium, I turned and motioned to Elizabeth to follow me. My reasoning was that she doesn't always behave for Sarah.

So there we are in the nursery. No more sitting still for Timothy. But Elizabeth, looking rather pale and tired, sat down in a chair facing me. Suddenly she choked, swallowed, and got a panicked look on her face. I accurately predicted the near future and told her to get in the bathroom and lean over the toilet.

She stood there, in the doorway between the nursery and the bathroom. Crying, she tried to describe what she felt like doing. I frantically told her to get over the toilet, which was close enough to her that she could touch it. Instead she exploded all over the nursery carpet. Trying not to raise my voice because the men were praying in the next room, I told her to get over the toilet, NOW. She moved into the bathroom and stood by the toilet and exploded all over the wall, the floor, the outside of the toilet.

Meanwhile, Timothy, terrified at the sight of all this *stuff* exploding out of Elizabeth, was screaming.

I will not go into detail about the clean-up. And when prayer time was over I still had John's wet seat to clean.

There was no change of clothes for Elizabeth. She had to go home wearing her sweater and the shorts she had on under her dress. Poor girl! It turned chilly tonight, too.

Later, as I started the van, I checked the mileage. We have to do that now, to decide when to get gas, because the gas gauge doesn't work. I called Tom over and asked if he thought I needed to get gas. We decided I could make it home. He followed in the car in case I did run out. (Normally we go two different ways trying to beat each other home.)

We were almost to our exit when Sarah says, "Wouldn't it be funny if the van stalled right now?"

Just the thought of that possibility nearly pushed me over the edge into hysterical laughter.

Josiah's word of consolation: "But it should encourage you to know that you can't quit. It's impossible. You don't even have to think about it."

HA!

11:02 PM

2007-10-16T23:02:00.000-04:00

To every thing there is a season. . . .a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which was planted. --Ecclesiastes 3:1-2

I just pulled the last jar out of the canner for this garden season. I made a batch of hot pepper relish with the last of the peppers. Tomorrow, if it doesn't rain, what's left of the garden will go under the ground to await next year's planting. I am so glad to be finally done with canning!

This year I'm going to try something old-fashioned with the pumpkins. Instead of processing them all at once and trying to find room in the freezer for all that pulp, I'm going to store them in a cool, dry place to use as I need them. The corn I'm drying on the cob, still on the stalks. When the stalks are completely brown, we'll shuck and shell the corn and try grinding our own cornmeal.

We harvested about 30 pounds of the hottest onions I ever hope to cry over cutting. Today I found I could avoid all the tears by taking the cutting board out onto the porch. When the weather gets too cold for that, I'm not sure what we'll do. Abby tried wearing safety goggles, but she says that doesn't work well.

While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease. --Genesis 8:22

And now it is time for bed. I am still coughing, but I think I should be able to sleep tonight. I haven't had a decent night's sleep since getting this cold.

When Josiah was bored...

2007-10-14T10:02:00.000-04:00

Since I am staying home with my own cold and two sons with their colds, I thought I'd share something from Josiah's stay in the hospital last week.

He lay there on the bed, bored, staring at the ceiling, the walls and whatever he could see out the door. Then his gaze lit on the monitor screen, which faithfully recorded all his vitals. There were four or five wavy lines making their way across the screen, with numbers along the side, one number for each line. He figured out what each was for, except one. He studied it for a while before realizing that the slightly rounded vee shapes traveling across the screen corresponded to his own rhythmic breathing.

With this realization, a new form of entertainment presented itself. For this was the one line on the screen he could actively control!

First he tried to breathe in such a way as to make the waves perfectly rounded, even, and all the same size, like sine waves. This was hard. Then he tried making the line go straight up, over, down, over, up, over, etc., like the top of a castle wall or a cross-section of a waffle. Then he decided to see what would happen if he held his breath. The straight line had almost crossed the whole screen when the corresponding number began to flash 0 over and over. Realizing he really didn't want to cause a commotion with his nurses, he decided to end his breathing experiments.

Later, and at his request, Tom brought him a couple of Canadian history books to study. This kept him interested, yet he was never more glad than when the doctor told him he could come home.

What's been happening around here lately...

2007-10-13T20:43:00.000-04:00

July

We got this year's school books in July and started almost the next day.

We interrupted school frequently to start harvesting the garden.

August

We continued harvesting the garden and trying to do school, in spite of the fact that the neighbourhood children kept knocking on the door wanting to play and the tomatoes were rapidly ripening.

Abby got some sort of infection on her face after swimming in the St. Lawrence River, on the US side. She was the only one to get it, and the only one to have touched a dead *thing* that had floated in to shore. The doctor said there was no connection, but I'm not so sure. She still has some scars under her eyes, making her look slightly sunburned.

September

We continued processing the never-ending tomatoes, which really will taste nice this winter after I get over being sick of them.

I had my first midwife appointment for Baby Number Ten, who is expected to show his/her face sometime in early April.

Family vacation!!! The first in six years that did NOT include visiting relatives. We went tent camping in the Adirondacks, an unforgettable experience that deserves (and will get) a separate post.

October

Josiah spent four days in the hospital, with pneumonia. He has not fully recovered yet. They said we got him in just in time--we might have lost him, but God is merciful. We are praying that there is no relapse. The rest of us are taking turns battling colds. I am taking my turn now.

Sarah started her own blog.

I determined to tackle my tote of unfinished quilts. I finished one yesterday that I started a year ago. It was for a friend who had bronchitis then. She was happy to get it, though, of course, she is quite healthy now. (Sorry, Mom. I forgot to take a picture.) Today I got a good second wind going on the next one.

We got the first freeze for which there was evidence left after the sun came up. Hopefully it will not rain Monday, and we can finish the garden off once and for all.

I have all the while been working on my French, which is not improving as quickly as I would like. I still can't pronounce it well, especially words which contain the letter r. And I still don't hear it well. Les chiens courent sounds almost the same as Le chien court. There is just a subtle difference between Le and Les, which is hard for me to pick up when French is spoken at normal speed. And can someone who knows French please explain how Des filles sont assis sur la table translates into English if there are only two girls sitting on the table? As near as I can tell, des means some or more than one, but in English we would not normally say some girls when there are only two. I guess you can't always translate everything exactly.

The house is quiet now. All the children have had their baths/showers, and are tucked into bed. I will have to check on a couple of bookworms and remind them to turn off their lights. Then it will be time for me to turn in.

Good night!